How is it that flushing cat litter down the toilet has negatively affected sea otters? What is the responsible way to dispose of cats’ waste? And - how can we get schools to offer healthier and more eco-friendly cafeteria food to our kids?
According to Dr. Melissa Miller of the California Department of Fish and Game, cat feces can contain Toxoplasma gondii, a parasite that gets into feline systems from the eating of infected rodents, birds or other small animals. When cats later expel these parasites in their droppings—sometimes hundreds of millions at a time—each can survive in soil for over a year and also contaminate drinking water.
Most municipal sewage treatment systems are not designed to filter out Toxoplasma, and so the parasites also get into storm drains and sewage outflows that carry them out to near-shore ocean waters. Here, researchers have found, sea otters prey on mussels, crabs and other filter feeders that can concentrate Toxoplasma. Hundreds of sea otters have been found dead on California beaches in recent years with no obvious external injuries, and Miller and other scientists think that Toxoplasma may be the cause.
There are other possible culprits, too, including toxic algae blooms caused by urea, an ingredient in fertilizer, and the plethora of other man-made pollutants that end up in ocean waters. But California’s legislature last year nonetheless passed a bill to protect sea otters, in part by requiring that all cat litter sold in the state carry a warning label advising cat owners to not flush cat litter or dispose of it in storm drains.
Toxoplasma can also cause health problems for people, especially those with compromised immune systems (such as AIDS patients). While not typically fatal in humans, Toxoplasmosis, as the disease is called, can also cause birth defects, blindness and/or brain damage in children born to infected mothers.
The best way to avoid the infection is to use plastic gloves when changing the litter box and to wash hands thoroughly afterwards. It is also advisable to stay away from raw or undercooked meat and uncooked or unwashed vegetables that may have been contaminated by manure (although felines are the parasites’ primary host, other warm-blooded animals and birds can also be carriers). Toxoplasmosis doesn’t normally spread from person to person (with the exception of pregnant women, who can pass it on to their fetuses), but in rare instances it has contaminated blood transfusions and organs donated for transplantation.
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So what’s a responsible cat owner to do about dumping the contents of their cat’s litter box? According to Dr. Patricia Conrad, a veterinarian and parasitologist at the University of California at Davis who has studied Toxoplasma contamination in sea otters, cat owners can start by keeping their cats inside, where they are not able to hunt the small animals that can pass Toxoplasma along to them in the first place. (Bird lovers have been requesting this for years.)
Those cat owners unwilling to keep their cats inside should do their part by at least not flushing cat litter or cat feces down the toilet. Cat fecal material should be placed in double plastic bags and included in the household trash. As such it will end up in the landfill where precautions are taken to prevent environmental contamination.
CONTACTS: “What’s Killing California Sea Otters?” www.seaotterresearch.org; “Parasite in Cats Killing Sea Otters,” www.research.noaa.gov/spotlite/archive/spot_otter.html.
Dear EarthTalk: How can we get schools to offer healthier and more eco-friendly cafeteria food to our kids? I don’t have time to bag a healthy lunch every day. -- Question from Leslie Morris, Richmond, VA
Now that many schools have stopped selling sodas and other unhealthy vending machine items to their students, improving the nutritional quality of cafeteria food is on the agenda of many parents and school administrators. And luckily for the environment, healthier food usually means greener food.
Some forward-thinking schools are leading the charge by sourcing their cafeteria food from local farms and producers. This saves money and also cuts back on the pollution and global warming impacts associated with transporting food long distances. And since many local producers are turning to organic growing methods, local food usually means fewer pesticides in kids’ school lunches.
Alarmed by childhood obesity statistics and the prevalence of unhealthy foods offered to students in schools, the Center for Food and Justice (CFJ) in 2000 spearheaded the national Farm to School lunch program. The program connects schools with local farms to provide healthy cafeteria food while also supporting local farmers. Participating schools not only obtain food locally, they incorporate nutrition-based curriculum and provide students with learning opportunities through visits to the local farms.
Farm to School programs now operate in 19 states and in several hundred school districts. CFJ recently received significant support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to expand the program to more states and districts. The group’s website (link below) is loaded with resources to help schools get started.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) also runs a Small Farms/School Meals program that boasts participation in 400 school districts in 32 states. Interested schools can check out the agency’s “Step-by-Step Guide on How to Bring Small Farms and Local Schools Together,” which is available free online.
Other schools have taken the plunge in their own unique ways. In Berkeley, California, noted chef Alice Waters holds cooking classes in which students grow and prepare local organic fruits and vegetables for their peers’ school lunch menus. And as documented in the film, “Super Size Me,” Wisconsin’s Appleton Central Alternative School hired a local organic bakery that helped transform Appleton’s cafeteria fare from offerings heavy on meat and junk food to predominantly whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables.
Of course, parents can ensure that their children eat well at school by forgoing the cafeteria offerings altogether and sending their kids to school with healthy bag lunches. For on-the-go parents unable to keep up with a daily lunch making regimen, innovative companies are beginning to sprout up that will do it for you. Kid Chow in San Francisco, Health e-Lunch Kids in Fairfax, Virginia, New York City’s KidFresh and Manhattan Beach, California’s Brown Bag Naturals will deliver organic and natural food lunches to your kids for about three times the price of a cafeteria lunch. But prices should change for the better as the idea catches on and more volume brings costs down.
CONTACTS: Farm to Schools, www.farmtoschool.org; USDA Small Farms/School Meals Initiative, www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/Lunch/Downloadable/small.pdf; Kid Chow, www.kid-chow.com, Brown Bag Naturals, brownbagnaturals.com; Health e-Lunch Kids, healthelunchkids.com; Kidfresh, kidfresh.com.
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