Cat flea treatment insecticides are poisoning aquatic life in rivers

It may surprise people to know that spot-on cat flea treatments used in the home in the ordinary way can poison aquatic life in rivers and watercourses miles away. It's the insecticides used in these treatments such as fipronil and imidacloprid which do the damage. 

This is what happens: you apply the treatment to your cat at the back of the neck and some of the treatment gets on your hands so you wash your hands afterwards. The water goes down into the drainage system and then to rivers. In fact we are advised to wash our hands afterwards as the chemicals are dangerous to us! 🤢

Or after you apply the treatment your cat goes on to their bedding and some of the chemical is deposited on the bedding. You wash the bedding in due course and the chemical is then washed into the wastewater system and thence into watercourses miles away.

The research was carried out by a PhD student and veterinary surgeon at the University of Sussex in the UK, Rosemary Perkins. She says the following:

This research confirms that fipronil and imidacloprid used in spot-on flea products are important surface water pollutants. With around 22 million cats and dogs in the UK, we urgently need to rethink how these products are regulated and used.

Of the methods mentioned above, the most common is washing your hands. The research by Perkins builds on earlier research which found that the insecticide fipronil was found in 98% of freshwater samples. The other insecticide, imidacloprid was found in 66% of freshwater samples. Both are in concentrations at which they can harm aquatic animals.

The scientists are asking for a review of regulations concerning these cat flea treatments. Professor David Goulson also of Sussex University, who supervised the research said that these two chemicals are extremely potent neurotoxic insecticides. 

He added that it is deeply concerning they are routinely found on the hands of dog and cat owners and that people should be concerned and will be concerned that they pollute rivers and kill aquatic life.

He implies a third way the chemicals get into watercourses. After applying the treatment, the dog owner or cat owner handles their pet and some of the chemical is still in the fur and that gets onto their hands.

I've mention this many times but these insecticides are very toxic to cats as well as people.

The solution?

There appears to be two obvious solutions. The first is not the use the spot-on treatments (I don't) and find other ways, holistic ways, to keep your home and your cat flea-free. 

It can be done. For example it means no carpets or if you have a carpet to vacuum your carpet regularly as this is an effective way to get rid of larvae and pupae and adult fees in the carpet. 

Ideally it should be a beater type vacuum cleaner which disturbs the particles and flea larvae at the base of the carpet.

Another way is to use surgical gloves would you can buy very cheaply on Amazon when you apply this treatment. Use the gloves repeatedly and then when they are finally worn out placed them in the rubbish in the usual way. That would be a very effective way of preventing the insecticides getting into the water system.

The bottom line is to focus on keeping your home totally flea free which means applying a lot of vigilance such as flea combing your cat once or twice a day to keep tabs on what is going on. 

Minimise the number of cats that you keep in your home. That won't be that popular with some people but the more cats you have the more chance of fleas jumping from one cat to the other and the more treatments you use.

I just want people to think about this problem and try and find their own way to remove it because we don't want to put wildlife under further pressure. Wildlife across the globe is already under immense pressure from human activity in a myriad of ways.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Phthalates in vinyl flooring a danger to domestic cats?

This is a cross post. If you would like to read the original article please click here. I am constantly made aware of the potential chemical hazards in a typical home. These are invisible and as such they are insidious and they can take effect over a long period of time. I am also acutely aware that some diseases in domestic cats are idiopathic, which means that the veterinarians do not know what causes them. And it is these two thoughts which may come together. Is it chemicals in vinyl flooring, sofas, and carpets that are harming domestic cats sometimes in some places and to a certain extent?

Picture: Pixabay.

In this instance my research indicates that phthalates are incorporated into vinyl flooring i.e. the type of flooring which looks like wood, to make it more pliable. Through wear and tear and perhaps just during normal use, or even without use, science has determined that phthalates migrate from viny into the atmosphere in the home.

We know that domestic cats spend a lot of time on the floor and on sofas and carpets. We often see domestic cats lying on kitchen floors or walking on them. It is not be beyond the bounds of possibility that domestic cats are being slightly poisoned by phthalates in those homes where there is vinyl flooring.

This chemical is not put into water bottles and food containers. I believe the reason for this is that the manufacturers know it is unsuitable for those products. However, scientific studies tell us that phthalates migrate from flooring to the atmosphere and therefore there is a real danger there. Phthalates are described as endocrine disruptors. In other words they disrupt the production of hormones.

Further, in the past few years research has indicated that there is a link between phthalates and asthma in humans and in addition to attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, breast cancer, obesity and type type II diabetes and low IQ and neurodevelopmental issues. You can go on to male fertility issues and autism spectrum disorders. There is a long long list and we know that doctors are still scratching their heads about some of these disorders so I would like to point the finger at phthalates as a possibility.

If these chemicals affect people in this way then surely it is reasonable to presume that they present a danger to domestic cats as well. And we know that hardwood flooring or fake hardwood flooring is very popular at the moment. I wonder if this trend to this type of flooring has inadvertently led to cat illnesses which veterinarians are finding hard to diagnose. I don't have the statistics but it is worth at least flagging up this potential.

I wrote about chemicals in carpets and fire retardants in furniture some years ago. The links take you to pages on those topics.