Air freshener toxic to fish and humans

[kevindo123]

Ok... It been driving me crazy these last couple of days. I think I found the root cause as to why all of a sudden all my fish in my QT died all of a sudden or became very sick. All parameters in my QT Are normal and nothing out of the ordinary. The fish would just get fatigue and seems difficult for it to swim the next day after introduction. It would swim vertically in one spot or just get blown around by the return. There are no signs of ick or velvet on any of the fish. Breathing is always normal and not rapid. It all started when my wife decided to put an air freshener just outside my room. I thought nothing of it until today my last remaining clown fish acting up and not eating and was hard for it to swim.

I did a search online and found most air freshener are not good for your health and contain phthalates. Since this is toxic to humans especially to males, I would assume they are toxic to fish as well. Any ideas? I threw the air freshener in the trash.

 

[Bunnee911]

I see this come up often in threads. I have kept salt water fish since the 80s and burn candles. I don't use the plug in air freshener. So, no help.

 

[Brian Kim]

I have air fresheners around my entire house including the basement and all my fishes are okay.
Thinking about removing them after reading this though

 

[cmcoker]

Toxic how? For males is reproductive issues and quick search suggested carcinogen.. So, it won't hurt to remove it but I wouldnt be quick to blame a contaminate, especially on a qt tank. I mean, theyre in there to watch for disease, can succumb to shipping stress, ammonia..
I'd be more suspicious if it was established display tank with healthy, disease free livestock.
My wife loves air fresheners, the sprays, haven't had an issue but I do run carbon all the time..

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Which air freshener were you using?

There are a lot of different chemicals in air fresheners and most have probably not been tested against marine organisms, and some people think they have had various sorts of issues. This link shows a paper that tested the toxicity of various phthalates to fish and other aquatic organisms and found that it took at least ppm to hundreds of ppm to acutely kill them.

https://www.researchgate.net/profil..._organisms/links/554b75530cf29f836c96b2ec.pdf

But the level of phthalates in air fresheners is not "that high" in relative terms. They themselves often have phthalates at ppm levels, so when dissolved into a tank, EVEN IF the whole thing dumped in, you might not get to toxic levels.

http://www.nrdc.org/health/home/airfresheners/fairfresheners.pdf
http://www.nrdc.org/living/healthreports/hidden-hazards-air-fresheners.asp

FWIW, fish die in QT tanks all the time for reasons people never identify, and I'd be wary of concluding the air fresheners are the reason why here.

 

[kevindo123]

It could be something bad in the tank. But, it happened the day after my wife put in the air freshener. Same QT I used previously for my other fishes were fine. It still a mystery. I will add some chromis and see how it goes. Have done 20% water change and have added Active carbon.

 

[Cory]

What are your water parameters? This sounds more like ammonia.

 

[carol m.]

Regarding air freshener toxicity, I experienced lysol spray toxicity. I had sprayed the door nobs and light swithes in the house and had my sexy shrimp in the room die. I contacted lysol and told them that they needed to put a warning on the can. I don't know if they did because i will never use it again. Very toxic to fish and inverts! I'm thinking it is toxic to humans also.

 

[JTreef]

I made the mistake of using febreze in the same room as my tanks. I have two tanks in the same room. Both had a terrible bacteria bloom within days. Took weeks of lots of water changes to clear up.

 

[jason2459]

Interesting. Febreze and Lysol has been used around my 180 and 20 on more then one occasion over many years. Never seen any kind of negative reaction. Not saying one couldn't have one but doesn't seem a sure thing. I've had mildew remover used in an excessive quantity by some relatives while I was gone thinking they were helping in a basement room I was going to refinish next to my sump room wipe out all the inverts in my tank and a few fish that I would attribute directly to it or indirectly through ammonia spikes.

 

[kevindo123]

It's not ammonia spike as the tank has cycled and I measured 0 ammonia. It turns out it's not the freshener but some type of parasite or fluke from a sick fish in QT. I have put in a cardinal fish ( could not get any chromis at LFS) and so far it has not been eating and is hiding behind the rocks which is not normal. I have treated it with prazi and will monitor it. I'll see if I can get a microscope help to find out what is infecting the fish. I very interested in finding the root cause.

 

[Robbs Reef]

yes had an experience of my friend spaying any thing around tank can have a very bad effect

 

[Cali-Saltwater-1st-Timer]

I find it hard to believe air freshener sold in stores is toxic to men (people in general). Not sure about fish. All of this is anecdotal, most saying they've burned incense, candles, and spraying air freshener without issue while some saying they've had issues. All anecdotal.

 

[MnFish1]

So - If you burn a candle in a room or spray air freshener or lysol, etc etc. The amount of actual 'chemical' in the air is extremely small to start with (for example lysol on a doorknob - most of it I assume gets wiped off). To assume that anything but a small amount of whatever chemical you are spraying (in a limited area - not something like a fumigation lol) is getting into the tank doesnt seem to make sense.

Then consider that people add alcohol directly to their tanks. People put H2O2 in their tanks, etc etc.

The human nose is very sensitive to a lot of the 'freshness' chemicals that are left in the air after spraying these types of things. In actuality, there is only a very small small amount present/cubic foot of air.

Part of the equation - how big is the room? How big is the tank? How much chemical was put into the air?

 

[squampton]

Some lysol products contain Alkyl Dimethyl Benzyl Ammonium Chloride which according to a EPA report I found from 2006 this is what they say about it.

"categorized as highly toxic to fish (LC50 = 280 μg ai/L) and very highly toxic to aquatic invertebrates (LC50 = 5.9 μg ai/L) on an acute exposure basis.

Chronic effects were seen in fish at a concentration of 32.2 μg ai/L and a no observable adverse effect concentration 45 (NOAEC) of 4.15 μg ai/L was established for aquatic invertebrates.

The results of the dietary avian studies categorized ADBAC as moderately toxic to birds on an acute basis (LC50 = 136 mg/kg-bw, with no chronic data available. ADBAC is categorized as slightly toxic to mammals on an acute basis (LD50 = 430 mg/kg-bw) and a chronic NOAEC of 44 mg/kg/day was established."



Now I have no idea how much lysol it takes to kill fish in an aquarium, but maybe someone here can figure it out based on the above.

 

[MnFish1]

Some lysol products contain Alkyl Dimethyl Benzyl Ammonium Chloride which according to a EPA report I found from 2006 this is what they say about it. "categorized as highly toxic to fish (LC50 = 280 μg ai/L) and very highly toxic to aquatic invertebrates (LC50 = 5.9 μg ai/L) on an acute exposure basis.
Chronic effects were seen in fish at a concentration of 32.2 μg ai/L and a no observable adverse effect concentration 45 (NOAEC) of 4.15 μg ai/L was established for aquatic invertebrates.
Now I have no idea how much lysol it takes to kill fish in an aquarium, but maybe someone here can figure it out based on the above.

Tried to do this - then edit it - unfortunately - the calculation was partially deleted lol

So will try again. Lysol contains (between .02 and.1%) BAC. depending on the product - using the worst case scenario

.1% BAC = .1 mgBAC/100 ml lysol
= 1 mg BAC/1000 ml lysol
= 1000 micrograms/liter lysol.
= 1 microgram BAC/ml lysol

Assume one spray of lysol contains 1 ml (which is high I think).

If sprayed directly into a 40 liter (10 gallon) tank, this would = .25 micrograms/l

note - these calculations might be incorrect. Depending on how .1% is calculated. Hopefully @Randy Holmes-Farley isn't too busy at his new job to look at them
A smaller tank - or small room should make a difference
A skimmer might make a difference (i.e. increase concentration)
There are other chemicals in lysol that may be more toxic.

There are numerous reports online of problems with tanks after being exposed to lysol - so im certainly not recommending getting it any where near your tank!!!!!

 

[Nhjmc]

Ok... It been driving me crazy these last couple of days. I think I found the root cause as to why all of a sudden all my fish in my QT died all of a sudden or became very sick. All parameters in my QT Are normal and nothing out of the ordinary. The fish would just get fatigue and seems difficult for it to swim the next day after introduction. It would swim vertically in one spot or just get blown around by the return. There are no signs of ick or velvet on any of the fish. Breathing is always normal and not rapid. It all started when my wife decided to put an air freshener just outside my room. I thought nothing of it until today my last remaining clown fish acting up and not eating and was hard for it to swim.

I did a search online and found most air freshener are not good for your health and contain phthalates. Since this is toxic to humans especially to males, I would assume they are toxic to fish as well. Any ideas? I threw the air freshener in the trash.

Happened to me as well last night. Got home from work and out of nowhere 5 of my 8 fish dead. All tests checked out fine. The culprit is either the yankee candles burning 5-10 feet away (one and another two rooms away) and febreze spray I used same distance away. What is weird is I've been doing that all along. IDK totally stumped here. Only other thing could be but doubt it is I changed my bag of purigen out the evening before. Brand new bag, rinsed very well under tap water drip dried then inserted into in tank media basket mech. filtration chamber as always have.