Amy Me Cada--
        Pardon my late response... it's a long story involving being out of
town, the service I had I-net access through died permanently, and the fact
that it takes time for recent FML issues to become available. :)
        Anyway, I did a little bit of looking into the subject of using Lysol
products that contain phenylphenol anywhere that my fuzzies might get later.  I
was hoping to see some comments from our favored vetly types, but I haven't
managed to get all back issues I'm missing yet, so I don't know what they
offered.  The two individuals I asked about the chemical are my vet (Pixie in
for annual shots today) and my mom (a former pharmaceutical chemist, now works
in the chemistry department at local Junior College).  The vet said that yes,
cats are extra sensitive to phenylphenol.  He asked about my uses, and I told
him that I use the Lysol disinfectant concentrate to clean the litterboxes and
the Lysol spray to clear the air if Thor lets loose.  He said so long as I
rinse and dry the litterboxes and don't spray the cage or something similar and
not wipe it back out that he saw no problems with it.  He said it probably
wouldn't make any difference once it was dry, but that if it wasn't rinsed off
and became wet again later, it could possibly become an irritant.
        My mom did a little research and came up with LD50 in rats to be 2.5
grams of the chemical ingested.  Bleh-- could you imagine ingesting that much
of the active ingredient in Lysol? ACK!! Anyway, for anyone who doesn't know,
LD50 means that the amount stated was the LETHAL dose in 50% of the rats
tested.  She said she was surprised to find such a large quantity listed, as
most toxins are listed in milligram amounts.
        So then I went to find out how much phenylphenol is actually in the
Lysol products I use.  The spray (which I never spray over the ferrets or their
cage) contains 0.1% phenylphenol.  The liquid concentrate contains 2.8%
phenylphenol, and I dilute it to clean the litterboxes, rinse, then dry before
using them again.
        What I am concluding from all this is that the Lysol products are safe
to use with reasonable care-- e.g. don't spray over ferrets or cage, take care
that water and food are never contaminated, and rinse and dry any surfaces
cleaned with Lysol.  What do you think?  Dr. Williams or Dr. Brown?
 
               Debra in Ft.Worth
 
[Posted in FML issue 0875]