Are we poisoning our pets, children, our homes and our environment?
The answer is yes! Every year Americans purchase a vast array of toxic chemicals intended to kill fleas and ticks and apply them to their pets and inadvertently are introducing these chemicals into their home, family, and the environment. Even though these well-meaning solutions are intended to kill fleas and ticks. . .and they usually do. . . they can also poison those very pets and the people who handle them. These products pose a very serious health risk to the people who handle them, children and especially the environment.
Even though adults are at risk from these flea and tick products, children are most vulnerable! Because children’s bodies are still developing, they can be more sensitive to the effects of toxic chemicals than adults. Studies with laboratory animals have raised concerns among scientists that children exposed to certain of the pesticides in pet products—even at levels believed to be safe for adults—face a much higher risk, not only for acute poisoning, but also for longer-term problems with brain function and other serious disease. These studies have also found that children’s behavior often makes them more vulnerable than adults. In particular, toddlers’ hand-to-mouth tendencies make it easy for toxics to be ingested—and not just by children who pet the family dog and then put their hands in their mouths. Children spend their time where the toxics from pet products tend to accumulate—crawling on rugs, playing with pet toys, handling accumulations of household dust, and more.
Sadly, most people believe that commercially available pesticides, such as those found in pet products, are tightly regulated by the government. In fact, they are not. Not until the passage of a 1996 law focused on pesticides in food did the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) begin examining the risks from pesticides in pet products. To this day, the EPA still allows the manufacture and sale of pet products containing hazardous insecticides with little or no demonstration that a child’s exposure to these ingredients would be safe. Just because these products are on store shelves or prescribed by a vet does not mean they have been tested or can be presumed safe.
As bad as these products may be for pet owners and caregivers, they often are worse for the pets themselves. Based on the extremely limited data available, it appears that hundreds and probably thousands of pets have been injured or killed through exposure to pet products containing pesticides. As with small children, pets cannot report when they’re being poisoned at low doses. Healthier alternatives to these pesticides are readily available. Easy physical measures like using safe, organic flea control products, frequent bathing, and combing of pets can make the use of pesticides unnecessary. Pet products containing non-pesticide growth regulators also can stop fleas from reproducing successfully. The safety and effectiveness of some natural organic alternatives makes the continued use of older, more toxic pet products tragically unnecessary.
Source: Poison on Pets, Health Hazards from Flea and Tick Products, authors David Wallinga, M.D., MPA and Linda Greer, Ph.D. National Resources Defense Council.