Effective immediately, visitors and residents living near a central Alberta lake are advised to avoid the water, and its toxic contents.
Alberta Health Services issued a blue-green algae advisory for Pine Lake Wednesday, after the waters were found to have the toxin.
As a result, anyone in the area including residents and visitors is advised to take the following precautions:
- Not drink water, or allow pets to drink water from the lake
- Not swim or wade, or let pets do so in the lake
- Not touch algae blooms that wash up on the shoreline
In addition, AHS advises pet owners to not let their animals eat fish or fish trimmings from this lake – and people may want to limit their consumption of whole fish or trimmings from the lake, as toxins have been found stored in their livers.
However, AHS officials said people can consume fillets of fish from the affected lake.
The toxin produced by the algae can cause serious illnesses in animals or humans who drink or have skin contact with water containing this toxin – which is present in water whether or not a bloom is visible in the area.
Anyone who comes in contact with the toxin can experience skin irritation, rash, sore throat, sore red eyes, swollen lips, fever, nausea and vomiting or diarrhea – those symptoms usually appear within one to three hours, and resolve in one or two days.
Extended consumption of contaminated water as a primary source has been found to cause liver damage, and boiling the water does not remove the toxin.
For more information, or if you suspect a problem related to algae, call Health Link Alberta at 1-866-408-LINK (5465).
