This topic was a bad idea as soon as it was posted. Not because of Pete, of course, nor the subject an sich. But talking about car cleaning is opening a can of worms and soon not going about the subject anymore, but against it. The car detailing section on this forum is a magnet for trolling. A shame, yes!
So, it wasn’t my intention to reply on Pete’s original post because of that. But as expected it soon went off topic and then i had to...
... imagine a salmon trying to find its way back to its home river and being confused by smell of car shampoo..
Pesticides (chemicals that kill insects) applied to farmland enter surface water and groundwater, often in large quantities.
Air pollution can make its way into rivers, lakes and streams. Some fall from the sky as dry particles. Other air pollutants are carried to the ground in raindrops, snowflakes, or fog. They not only harm water, but also the plant and animal life that depend on water to survive.
Rivers, streams and drinking water supplies are contaminated by synthetic hormones from contraceptive pills. More than 2.5 million women take birth control pills in the UK. Their EE2 content is excreted and washed into sewage systems and rivers. Even at very low concentrations, this chemical has proven harmful effects on fish.
The Typical Tap Water Content in the UK (and in the most part of the modern world) contains:
Chlorine
Fluorine compounds
Trihalomethanes (THMs)
Salts of:
arsenic
radium
aluminium
copper
lead
mercury
cadmium
barium
Hormones
Nitrates
Pesticides
Which cleaning detergents, laundry cleaners, softeners, shampoo, all purpose cleaners, fairy liquids, algae- and other outside cleaners do you all use in and around your house (not your car) and on yourself? All natural, eco-friendly? Do you eat biological, produced or grown close to your home as much as possible? What other chemicals do you use, eat, drink, food, medicine and end up in the water system and is NOT filtered out?
No? Then don’t go over the people who like to wash their car once or twice a month!! The smell of a car shampoo is the less the salmon has to worry about...