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Business View Magazine
Deepwater Chemicals, Inc.
Leading manufacturer of iodine-based specialty chemicals
Anyone of a certain age will likely associate the word “io-
dine” with the orange-red liquid in the small, glass bottle
often found in medicine cabinets and survival kits that
was used to disinfect wounds. It was often the antisep-
tic of choice that doting parents brushed onto cuts and
bruises before telling their wayward children to be more
careful next time. “Iodine has been used in antiseptics
for a very long time. And that will probably continue; it’s
very effective,” says Steve Wachnowsky, Vice President
and General Manager of Deepwater Chemicals (DWC),
an Oklahoma-based company that manufactures spe-
cialized organic and inorganic iodine derivatives.
Wachnowsky is correct when he mentions iodine’s pal-
liative uses. But in addition to its storied, therapeutic
qualities, this chemical element of the halogen family
with an atomic number of 53 is, actually, a very multifari-
ous substance with a wide variety of applications. Iodide
salts were first employed, medically, in the early 1900s
as a treatment for a host of conditions, including metal
poisoning, asthma, aneurisms, gout, syphilis, nephritis,
and bronchitis. Tincture of iodine was used as a pre-op-
erative, skin sterilization before surgery.
Iodine was first isolated by the French chemist, Bernard
