Ways Your Home Might Be Poisoning Your Pets & What You Can Do About It

#1 Ways Your Home Might Be Poisoning Your Pets & What You Can Do About It

Humans consider their four legged friends as part of the family. Best bud's, playmates, even loyal companions. We let them live inside our homes, feed them, care for them, and enjoy their endless company. But did you know that there are things in our everyday environment that our "friends" can not handle as well as we do, and it may be killing them.

Because many animals share the same environment as humans, they can sometimes serve as an early warning system for chemical exposures and health hazards. Acting as unwitting sentinels, animals have been deliberately placed at work sites to identify human health risks. The most famed example of this is canaries in a coal mine, a species specifically chosen because of their heightened sensitivity to carbon monoxide. If the bird dies, the miners would not go any further down the mine shaft.

#2 Sick Animals Or Pets Can Be A Warning That There Is Also Danger To Humans

In other cases, animals that became sick before the human populace did foreshadowed widespread risks to human health. During the mercury poisonings in Minamata, Japan in the 1950's, cats were the first to become ill from eating contaminated fish, exhibiting symptoms that have since been dubbed "dancing cat fever". Fish dying in droves, birds falling from the sky, herds of animals rushing to death, are all things that have come to be known as warnings that something is wrong in the environment or nature.

#3 Your Pet Is Most Likely The First To Come In Contact With Harmful Household Poisons

In today's world, our household pets are first to come into contact with harmful pollutants and contaminants especially so in home environments. House dust, mites, pollutants, soil, chemicals are all things that make pets exhibit symptoms sooner than humans do because they have shorter lifespans, are smaller in stature, and have faster metabolisms.

#4 Perfluorochemicals

Used as a coating to make various products resistant to heat, oil, grease, stains, and water, perfluorochemicals (PFCs) are a class of artificial compounds that have been in use since the 1950s. Among the most notable trademarked PFCs is Teflon but is also used in making carpet, clothing, furniture, adhesives, food packaging, and dental floss. It's very harmful to your pet. There's evidence that PFCs disrupt normal endocrine activity in animals, damaging the liver, pancreas and other organs.

Avoid packaging that is coated with the chemical, like dog treat bags, stain resistant carpeting, and unfiltered waters.

#5 Phthalates

A type of chemical plasticizer, phthalates are used in products to make them softer and more flexible. From PVC and plastics (shower curtains, vinyl flooring, raincoats, medical tubing, medication capsules, and plastic wrap) to personal care products (soap, shampoo, cosmetics, skin moisturizers, perfume, and nail polish), phthalates are so ubiquitous that most of the U.S. population has a measurable amount of it in their bodies. Phthlates is linked to hormone disruption, reproductive issues, and birth defects. It's worse on dogs, who chew toys made with this and the toxins increase with their saliva.

Avoid those plastic chew toys, store your leftover food in glass or stainless steel, and steer clear of any pet products or foods that contain "phth" in the ingredients: dibutyl phthalate (DBP), di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP), diethyl phthalate (DEP), phthalic acid, phthalic anhydride, phthalic glycols.

#6 Flame Retardant Chemicals

The don't really help with flames or smoke, but still they have been dded to home furnishings, textiles, building materials, and electronics, chemical fire retardants on consumer products for decades. Although one of the earliest flame retardants, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), was banned in the US in 1977 when it was discovered to be cancer-causing, we still have a high amount in the air we breath from older buildings and things we use everyday that were not covered under the ban. Also, polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) is a major environmental pollutant that is chemically similar to PCBs, and poses a serious risk to human health. It is in our bedding, furniture and clothing, and causes a feline disorder that makes cats get liver ailments early in life.

Look for flame retardant-free furnishings and vacuum with a good HEPA filter daily to reduce the risks of these pollutants.

#7 Formaldehyde

This should have been banned years ago but it's still in a ton of products. Despite being a known human carcinogen, formaldehyde is a common chemical used in everything from building materials and insulation, composite wood products, paints, lacquers and finishes, glues, fabrics, fertilizers and pesticides, and as a preservative for medicines, cosmetics, fabric softeners, and dishwashing liquids to name just a few places you'll find this colorless, pungent-smelling gas. It is released into the air when kept at room temperature. Inhaled, absorbed through the skin, and consumed via foods treated with fumigants, fertilizers, or preservatives, human and animal exposure to formaldehyde is fairly pervasive. It is considered toxic to all animals.

Smoke outside, not indoors, de-gas any new furnishing by leaving it out in the sun for a few days, and opt for matierials like rayon, cotton, wool, metal, solid wood, and stainless steel which are unlikely to contain formaldehyde.

#8 Pesticides

Released into the air and soil, pesticides have been found in streams, wells, groundwater, and rain, and have had a deadly impact on bird, bee, fish, and amphibian populations. Pets are often the first to come into contact with a freshly treated garden or lawn, exposed to herbicide chemicals by direct inhalation, absorption through the skin, consuming treated grasses, and ingesting it when they lick their paws. Leading to higher rates of bladder cancer, researchers found 19 of 25 dogs tested had lawn chemicals in their urine. They can even be poisoned by flea and tick medications.

Use natural weed and lawn treatments, clean your pets paws daily, use only flea treatments that are tested and deemed safe for animals.

#9 Be Careful Of Products You Don't Recognize As Natural

Data shows that the amount of toxins humans are exposed to around the home are at dangerous levels and rising since 1990. As you may already know, the home is a major source of pollutants and indoor air pollution can be 2-5 times higher than it is outdoors. If you love your pet, try and be responsible and learn what can harm them. If it is made with things that you have never heard of or can't pronounce, chances are it isn't good for you OR your lovable animals. Natural and untreated products and foods are always best if possible.