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Pet flea treatments polluting Britain's rivers
#1
This is alarming. Many cats and dogs receive flea treatments and the chemicals used in the treatments are now appearing in British rivers. In some cases the levels of chemicals are high. In some cases the levels are very high.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/01/...ms-rivers/


Once again we have gone ahead with and action like a flea treatment without considering its consequences. Once the treatment is on the pet we don't give it another thought. These chemicals kill insects and they are present in high levels in streams where they are killing many more insects. We have no idea what the impact of those insect deaths will be. What happens to birds and fish that eat the insects. They will have higher levels of the chemicals in their systems. Would it be safe to eat fish from those streams. Are those streams used for drinking water or irrigation? What about swimming in the water. What happens when the water reaches the ocean? 

We really don't have an answer to these questions right now. We won't know until things go wrong.
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Catherine

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#2
Oh my gosh....!
This is something I hadn't thought about. How many people would? It's a good job this issue has been noticed. That is so problematical.

Many vets recommend regular flea treatments, whether or not the animal needs it! Not only are these chemicals damaging the environment, what are they doing to our animals??
Misty had ONE flea treatment in her whole life. I am not even sure she needed that. I never saw one flea on her so never gave her another one. Same with Sally cat. Sally's human has provided me with a literal pile of flea products, and the recommended dosage is once every few months. I check her for fleas. No fleas. I don't give her the chemicals.
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#3
We do tend to over treat things. If there are no fleas then why treat them. They are not that hard to get rid of if you catch them right away. Of course that means paying attention to the health of your pet. People are lazy sometimes. They just want to dump chemicals on their pets and forget about them. 

Now that there are dangerous levels of pesticides in the rivers they are going to need to change things. At least  I hope there will be change. I don't want to think about what would happen if there is no change. There has been no long term study about the effects of flea treatments on people or the environment.

I wonder what else we are doing that is causing problems we have never thought about.
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Catherine

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#4
There will be all sorts of other things out there too. We already know about the particles used in body and face scrubs, and the problem of female hormones in drinking water, due to the contraceptive pill! These things cannot be got rid of. But what about drugs, such as chemotherapy drugs, even over-the-counter painkillers, anti-psychotic drugs etc? Some residue from them being excreted from the human body has to be lingering in the environment.

Many vets over-prescribe chemicals like flea and worm treatments,  and a lot of emphasis is placed on making sure your dog or cat gets these regularly, as a prophylactic measure.  Of course there are cases where they are needed and if not given, the animal can suffer. But I am pretty sure a large percentage of the time they are not needed. In those cases animals are being constantly bombarded with dangerous chemicals.
The vets must make quite a bit of extra regular money with those prescriptions. It's impossible to take an animal to the vet without the subject of those treatments being brought up, and recommended.

You are supposed to wear gloves while administering spot-on flea treatments. You are not supposed to stroke of pet the dog or cat for a day or so (I think it's that time) You are supposed to wash hands thoroughly, never to put it on where you might inhale it, and call the doctor if you get any in eyes or mouth. Does that sound safe?
Meanwhile cats and dogs lick themselves. But we don't worry about that....
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#5
Quote:You are supposed to wear gloves while administering spot-on flea treatments. You are not supposed to stroke of pet the dog or cat for a day or so (I think it's that time) You are supposed to wash hands thoroughly, never to put it on where you might inhale it, and call the doctor if you get any in eyes or mouth. Does that sound safe?

Meanwhile cats and dogs lick themselves. But we don't worry about that...
This is just one of many things that we do that are clearly dangerous. If you can't safely touch your pet after the treatment how is it safe to put it on the pet's skin. It clearly isn't safe for the environment either. Not if the chemicals are present in rivers in dangerous amounts.

The pet flea treatment chemicals should be a wake up call for our other types of "run off". Body scrubs are very dangerous for the environment. All the drugs and treatments we use are ending up in our water. Radioactive material from radiation treatments is also passing into the environment.

I live in a city on a large lake. We dump our treated waste into the lake and we take our drinking water from the same lake.
I am sure there are flea treatment chemicals in the water along with the other mix of chemicals. If we start checking lakes and rivers associated with big cities we will probably find the same problem everywhere. I don't know what we can do to fix it. First we need to take the problem seriously.
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Catherine

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