Health & Safety

Your Family's Health

No one is as concerned about the safety of the chemicals we use than we are. After all, we're around insecticides and herbicides every day. Modern chemistry has fortunately provided pesticides for society that are, on the whole, extremely safe to be around.

In fact, most of the items under your sink and in the cabinet are of a higher toxicity than the chemicals we use.

Look at a product's LD50. Higher numbers mean a less toxic product (it takes more to hurt you). Lower numbers mean more toxic (it takes less to hurt you).

Take your weight in kilograms, and multiply it by the number in the LD50 column. For example, a 220 pound man weighs 100 kilograms. It would take 20,000 mg of caffeine to theoretically kill a mammal that size. That's 133 VERY strong cups of coffee in a row, assuming he didn't metabolize any of it!

On the left are items you can find in your kitchen. On the right are chemicals we use to control insects. Not only does it take a tremendous amount to hurt a mammal, it's nearly impossible for you, your kids, or pets to get enough of the active ingredient to get hurt. Those numbers apply to drinking the active ingredient; none of these insecticides comes as 100% active ingredient.

Any toxicologist will tell you that dose makes the poison, and access to the chemical will determine whether an unhealthy dose is possible. At the rates we apply, there's really no chance to get a dose that large!

For example, it would require more than a quart to lethally harm a mammal that weighs 85kg (185 lbs). In a typical home, we would use much less than that, and you won't be swallowing any of it.