Chemicals from flea treatments for pets are polluting streams and rivers, a study has found.
High levels of the chemical imidacloprid were found in the Cairngorms in Scotland, the Great Ouse in Bedfordshire and the Ancholme in Lincolnshire.
There are 68 registered veterinary products using the substance to treat fleas in dogs, cats, rabbits and ferrets. The chemical, a neonicotinoid insecticide, is found also to kill insects that live or feed near water, such as mayflies, and damage the health of fish and birds.
Buglife, a charity, found that in three bodies of water — the Tame in Manchester; Wyke Beck in Leeds and Somerhill Stream in Kent — neonicotinoids exceeded chronic pollution limits as a result of the use of imidacloprid on pets. Substantial levels of the chemicals were also recorded in the Sincil Dyke watercourse in Lincoln, the River Waveney in Norfolk and Suffolk and the River Wensum in Norfolk.
The report found imidacloprid was rarely used as an insecticide by farmers but was still used in greenhouses and the chemical is understood to wash off dogs bounding into streams.
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Matt Shardlow, chief executive of Buglife, said: “We are devastated to discover many British rivers have been heavily damaged by neonicotinoid insecticides. It is vital action is taken to completely ban these toxins, including in greenhouses and on pets, before another year of disgraceful pollution occurs. The most likely source of pollution in the Cairngorms is a treated dog entering the stream.”
The report stated imidacloprid applied to pets ran off into storm drains and watercourses when it rains or when an animal or its bedding was washed.
This resulted in “the pollution entering the sewage systems and storm drains and thereby watercourses; or direct pollution of a watercourse, lake or pond if the animal is allowed to swim in the water body” the report said, adding: “Some imidacloprid is likely to be excreted after absorption through the skin.”
Buglife said that as well as imidacloprid there was a “bewildering array of toxins available to treat ectoparasites on pets in the UK” produced with neonicotinoid chemicals.
Mr Shardlow told The Telegraph: “The use of imidacloprid in pet products should be suspended as a first step, until we find out how many other harmful chemicals are getting into water in this way.
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“We need to monitor more carefully the impact on the countryside of the use of these chemicals and at the moment we’re not doing that.”
Buglife has submitted its findings to the Environment Agency, which is conducting its own analysis, and to Michael Gove, the environment secretary.