Your cat probably has more mercury in its system than you do, and your dog has twice as much of the chemicals found in stain-resistant carpets and couches. That’s the conclusion of an environmental group that tested pets for a wide range of industrial chemicals.
If you walk on a stain-resistant carpet, you may kick up and inhale a tiny dose of perfluorochemicals, or PFCs. But what if you stretched out on it for a while and then licked your fur? That’s what Richard Wiles and his colleagues at the Environmental Working Group wanted to know.
“It occurred to us that no one had actually tested pets, [which] live in the same environment as we do, for the toxic contaminants that we know are in people,” Wiles says.
Never really thought about this before. But I think the emphasis may be off (as usual). As much as I care about my two indoor cats who regularly walk, sit, and lie down on our carpeting, what about our grandson? What about little people who as infants might be placed on the floor (hopefully on a blanket at least), and as toddlers and preschoolers definitely sit and play on the rugs? Shouldn’t we be just a wee bit more concerned for their well-being than for Rover or Fluffly?