Lawn Care Products And Your Pets
For many years pet owners have been concerned with lawn care products. Pet owners think that all lawn care products are pesticides and pose a health threat to their pets. Although there are a few areas that havent been clarified when it comes to lawn care products and your pets health and safety. With the proper knowledge and research you can determine which lawn care products are safe for you pets and how to keep your pet from coming in contact with harmful lawn care products.
Exposure
Oral and dermal are the two primary ways that pets can come in contact with lawn care products. Depending on storage an animal can come into contact with liquid concentrates and granules. During application and before drying animals came come into contact with diluted liquids. In addition any spilled granules can be a source of exposure for pets. Although what happens if you pet is exposed to lawn care products and what should you do.
Most of the time exposure to lawn care products will not cause any adverse side effects for pets, although it all depends on how much the pets ingest or absorb. A mixture of liquids and granules is more likely to result in toxicosis rather than just a common exposure to the products. There many be mild clinical signs from excessive consumption of spilled granules. Most of the time oral or skin exposure to diluted liquids doesnt pose a significant problem.
Precautions
Many states and local cities will require the posting of a lawn care products application by law. These postings are done to notify people that lawn care products have been applied. This is supposed to be a part of the communitys right to know rather than having any link to the potential toxic nature of the materials being used.
It is often recommended that both humans and animals stay of lawns until the liquid application has been allowed to dry to the full exposure limit. The public should limit exposure to all types of chemicals not just lawn care products. As the liquid dries, the amount of chemical that anyone can be exposed to decreases. This is why it is recommended to wait until the lawn products have dried completely before allowing both humans and animals on the lawn.
Mild exposure to most products for lawn care do not pose a threat to you and your pets. However, it is always best to take extra precautions rather than to be careless. As with all chemicals, it is important to properly store your products so that you dont risk chemical spills or injuries from children or pets ingesting too much of the chemicals.
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