Gee, what will they think of next...

Mom, you won't miss anything if you want to skip this post.

I got this newsletter today telling me about a new insect repellent from SC Johnson Brands. The OFF!® Clip-On™ repellent provides personal protection from mosquitoes without having to apply something to your skin.

This is really appealing to me since I am really appealing to mosquitoes and rather sensitive to the repellent products that actually work to keep me from being bitten. I’d never heard of the active ingredient, metofluthrin, so I G00gled it. It made for some interesting reading. I learned about things like LD50 (lethal dose where 50% of the test subjects die) and LC50 (lethal concentration in 50% or test subjects). Here are some excerpts from the EPA’s sheet on this chemical (http://www.epa.gov/opprd001/factsheets/metofluthrin.pdf):

… Metofluthrin, like other pyrethroids, is neurotoxic in rats, rabbits, and dogs; both sexes were equally sensitive to metofluthrin. Clinical signs include tremor (all species), vomiting (dog only), and increased salivation (rats and dogs).

SO THEY TESTED THIS ON DOGS (beagles, to be exact), RABBITS, RATS, AND MICE.

… clinical signs including ataxic gait, tremors, tip-toe gait, lateral position, clonic convulsion, hypothermia, and mortality in both sexes.

DID WE MENTION DEATH…OH YEAH, WE CALL IT MORTALITY.

… a single dose of 100 mg/kg produced tremors, twitches, abnormal respiration, increased motor activity, and mortality. The animals found dead or in extremis 24 hours post-dosing (7 out of 20 animals) exhibited signs of clonic convulsions, hyperpnea, prostration, lost righting reflex, soft or liquid feces, tonic extensor convulsions, salivation, chromorhinorrhea, and chromodachyorrhea.

… Increased incidence of tremor was observed in males at 30 mg/kg/day in the chronic dog study. Tremor was observed in the head, limbs, or body of all males beginning on Day 96 (1-5 incidences/dog except one male with 46 incidences) and in only one female and only on Day 289.

ARE YOU TELLING ME THEY POISONED THESE ANIMALS FOR ALMOST 300 DAYS IN A ROW???

Well, this is just a little upsetting to me. I know, testing like this goes on all the time and it’s for my protection but shouldn’t we really be testing this stuff on humans to get results relevant to our own species?

I don’t know that I could buy this product knowing what I know about it and frankly I’m afraid the look at the MSDS sheet for the product I currently use.

On the other hand, the testing is done and the animals are already dead. Nothing can bring them back. If I don’t use this product, won’t their deaths have been in vain?

I fucking hate moral dilemmas.