There is an ice melter being sold here locally called "Bear Tracks," often as a fundraiser for organizations. The claim is that these are "safer" for pets, and in particular, the popular belief on the community Facebook pages around here is that it is better than using sodium chloride salt. Even pet advocacy places seem to believe this.
Intrigued, I looked it up and found the MSDS: https://www.asfsc.ca/sites/files/Beartracks MSDS.pdf
Low and behold, this product is mostly salt, with some urea and a dye to make it blue.
While I understand that urea is supposed to be easier on the paws of pets, I fail to see how this product is any "safer" than straight sodium chloride. Is there some reaction that takes place to render the sodium chloride less harsh? I highly suspect not. And in fact, reading about the whole world of ice melt, there is no regulation around the use of "pet safe" or "pet friendly" and sodium chloride itself can be termed "pet safe." It is after all the same stuff as the table salt we use.
I also am aware all the other "salts" (eg. calcium chloride, potassium chloride, etc) have issues that can be worse than sodium chloride.
Not readily available around here are pure urea ice melters, or beet juice based melters.
Somewhat available are urea fertilizers (any reason I can't use that instead?). And of course, there is DEF. Not sure if the water content is too high in that to use as an ice melting spray.
Intrigued, I looked it up and found the MSDS: https://www.asfsc.ca/sites/files/Beartracks MSDS.pdf
Low and behold, this product is mostly salt, with some urea and a dye to make it blue.
While I understand that urea is supposed to be easier on the paws of pets, I fail to see how this product is any "safer" than straight sodium chloride. Is there some reaction that takes place to render the sodium chloride less harsh? I highly suspect not. And in fact, reading about the whole world of ice melt, there is no regulation around the use of "pet safe" or "pet friendly" and sodium chloride itself can be termed "pet safe." It is after all the same stuff as the table salt we use.
I also am aware all the other "salts" (eg. calcium chloride, potassium chloride, etc) have issues that can be worse than sodium chloride.
Not readily available around here are pure urea ice melters, or beet juice based melters.
Somewhat available are urea fertilizers (any reason I can't use that instead?). And of course, there is DEF. Not sure if the water content is too high in that to use as an ice melting spray.
