Purifying Your Pet
The Ecology Center of Ann Arbor, Michigan, a nonprofit environmental research group, has spearheaded and publicized analysis of toxic chemicals in toys, cars, and children’s car seats for several years now. It has made its findings accessible on HealthyToys.org and HealthyCar.org, so concerned parents can protect the most vulnerable consumers: children.
Last Wednesday, the Center unveiled important new data on HealthyStuff.org involving another vulnerable population: animals.
This is the first year that the Center’s research has expanded to include items manufactured for the use and enjoyment of the pet population. It’s no small acknowledgment that childless people with pets are parents too — and that pets are as vulnerable as kids to toxic substances (if not more so, by virtue of their smaller size).
Using an XRF (shorthand for X-ray fluorescence analyzer), researchers examined some 900 common consumer products, over 400 pet products among them, for such hazardous chemicals as lead, cadmium, mercury, bromine, chlorine (PVC), and arsenic. These have been linked to reproductive and endocrine problems, developmental and learning disabilities, liver toxicity, and cancer in people.
Currently, there are no government standards for hazardous chemicals in pet products. So shockingly — or rather, not surprisingly — one quarter of the pet products tested, including all tennis balls manufactured exclusively for dogs, were found to have detectable levels of lead. Seven percent of the products screened showed levels higher than 300 ppm, the current Consumer Products Safety Commission standard for lead in children’s products. For those with dogs who live to play fetch and retrieve, this is very bad news. (Happily, balls made for human tennis players were found to be free of hazardous chemicals.)
Worried yet? Kitty toys don’t just contain catnip; while Puss is batting, clawing, hugging, and licking them, she’s also taking in hazardous bromine particles, scattering them about your home and licking them off her fur as she self-grooms. That’s because the toys’ fabric component is treated with brominated flame retardants, as are the covers of many pet beds. A 2007 EPA study linked BFRs to hyperthyroidism in cats. Meanwhile, chew toys for dogs contain arsenic as well as lead (for a complete listing by brand, visit HealthyStuff.org).
Um, Bobby Rush is a Democrat.
I thought PJM was above this kind of hysteria.
Oh NO! I am at this moment touching a PLASTIC keboard. When I think of all the hellish chemicals that are even now sticking to my fingers it makes me very frightened. AND there is a light shining on the keyboard which, I guess,heats it and makes it that much worse! What is an OCD worrywart to do??
I’m sorry, but this is just a bunch of foolishness. The world is a dangerous place. Yes, we should test things to make sure that real dangers are dealt with. But, this kind of fearmongering, finding poisons everywhere in minute amounts does nothing but promote more lawsuits and raise the cost of everything.
Several years ago we did some research on the ingredients in cat food when our kitty was not doing well. It is shameful what the well known manufacturers are putting into pet food. We now buy “organic” pet food at the whole foods store which does not contain hazardous chemicals or puppy-mill by-products.
For those on this sight who ridicule articles such as this:
Many of you are probably not only conservatives, but “Christians” too (and probably of the evangelical stripe). Isn’t it a Biblical principle to be good stewards of God’s creation (i.e. the body as the “temple” of God; Adam and Eve given responsibility for animal life in the garden, etc.)? Whether or not you believe in global warming, we can all admit that we do harmful things to the planet every day–polluting, using unnecessary chemicals, etc. The research shows that young girls are getting their periods much younger and children are being diagnosed with autism at a higher rate–some of these health issues have been traced to high levels of birth control pills (excess estrogen in urine, which then via the sewage system eventually leaches back into the ground, plastics, pesticides, etc.). I think it is a “Christian” and a civic duty to care about these things.
I’m excited that a Republican is participating in legislation to ban toxic chemicals. It is shameful that any discussions of preserving our environment have become the exclusive territory of the Democratic party. Conservatives need to take back this issue and find their own sensible proposals for making our planet a better place.
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How cute, someone pretending to be morally superior to Christians. It’s always nice to have someone drop by and mock Christianity, especially when the topic is what’s best for momma earth or kitty rather than mass murder and deadly “lifestyle” choices. Anyone who fails to focus on sparing the very lives of their fellow man while at the same time carefully checking the purity of cat stools is neither morally superior nor Christian. They’re just stupid.
The real shame is that Christians have allowed things like environmental BS to distract them for so long, not that the democrat eugenics machine uses environmentalism propaganda as a justification for socialist totalitarianism.
Yes, we absolutely must crack down on pet food hazards, for with the recession and unemployment and all, surely some of our poor brethren, including Uncle Al, even now are breaking open a can of doggie delite and getting cheap eats for another day. Can’t be too safe; we must protect even those bargain hunters at yard sales. A recent bureaucratic edict warns sellers of used stuff that they too are at hazard of getting their pants sued off by the govt. Next they’ll even want us to wear masks, not to fend off the new flu, but to cut our CO2 exhalants. For our own good, of course.
There is an awful lot of pseudo science behind the author’s contentions and those of the organizations she cites. Everything is toxic in a quantity that the organism in question cannot handle but we are not talking here about such quantities. This is a cause/agenda driven call for government action over ridiculously unimportant threats.
Please, no more calls for legislation unless it is really, really universally considered a problem that requires government intervention (hint: there aren’t that many). Have a good time promoting your cause to all who will listen. Shout it from the mountain tops. Call for boycotts. Knock yourself out. But stop trying to enlist our coercive, expensive, non-bill reading, unintended consequence generating, economy-sapping governmental bodies in your cause.
Does this mean that when we eat a dog or cat that we too can be affected?
“It’s not reasonable to expect parents to be experts on toxins,” says Blades, who also co-founded MoveOn.org.
‘MoveOn.org’? Ya lost me.
P.S. My cats are the most spoiled, pampered little fur-babies and they eat organic, human-grade pet food, organic catnip and they have cotton blankets. My older kitty is dying of old age (we will have to put him down probably this week as he seems to be suffering). I just lost my eldest kitty earlier this year. I will be down to only my youngest baby boy. I’m so sad.
I’ve been feeding my dogs human foods for over 15 years. Dogs used to eat leftovers. Now the pet food industry considers you a crank if you feed real food.
Mock on.
The biggest danger? Be aware that flea collars can kill more than fleas. Your pet (and you) may be at risk too. These are intended to be toxic but may be much more toxic than required.
This will have an effect like CIPSA on small producers of pet toys, etc. That is to say, it will put them out of business. Beware unintended consequences!
“Barack Obama is charismatic. He can charm, and has mastered the art of set cadence, pause, articulation, and voice modulation, in the manner of a JFK.”
I am sorry, but as much as I agree with most of your points, your opening sentiment totally puzzles me. I am used to listening to speakers to get information, to understand their thinking and to judge for myself their honesty and intentions. The utter lack of all of that makes it impossible for me to appreciate whatever oratorical talents he may have.
There is an old trick that you can easily apply to any speech: If the opposite of what the speaker says is totally absurd, then what he/she said is of no value (i.e. “children should not go hungry”). Try it sometimes and you will see that Obama never says anything that informs. It is always platitudes and generalities designed to imply some deeper thinking or noble purpose – but really intended to sell his programs and ideas or to obfuscate their down side. There is no amount of eloquence or speaking skills that overcomes this for me. Besides, his reliance upon text written by someone else and read from the teleprompter prevents eloquence and real connection with anyone but his ardent supporters. Abraham Lincoln wrote and felt every word of the Gettysburg Address as he gave it. Even the inarticulate George Bush tried to connect with his audience and sometimes paid the price with grammatical gaffes. I never appreciated that until Obama came along.
Oops. Prior comment was posted to the wrong story. Intended for: http://pajamasmedia.com/victordavishanson/a-devolving-depressing-and-debased-debate/
#5 Rashputin–
Don’t get your knickers in a twist. I’m not mocking Christianity–I happen to be a Christian and strongly pro-life.
What I am complaining about is the tendency of conservatives to poo-poo any discussion of preserving our environment, assuming that such conversations are the territory of Liberals and will naturally lead us to policies that will increase taxes and regulation. I’m merely pointing out the hypocracy of NOT caring when one purports to believe in a God who created the world and expects us to take care of it. Yes, there are more pressing matters out there than cat food, I agree. But someone has to care about these small things and many American do not think about the nature of the products they buy.
Please clarify your final sentence. It does not make sense.
Let me see… I see a bunch of Democrats and MoveOn.org involved in an effort that is supposedly good.
I’m not saying it’s not. Even PETA gets one right once in a while (Micheal Vic)…
What bothers me is what I don’t see:
CHINA!
Where is most of this stuff made?
Obama and the MoveOn crowd will control cheap tires, but they won’t stop lead dipped toys into the countr…
Mike G,
Did seem to be off a bit, but still a good read.
Thanks.
Whenever I see the phrase, ‘detectable levels of’, in an article or post, I stop reading at that point.
Our ability to measure is improving, and this will continue until every compound known to man will be detectable anywhere in our environment. It is more and more a platitude that “The poison is in the dose.”