Veterinarian, Dr. Sophia Yin's article, The Canine in the Coal Mine: Pollutants take their toll on our dogs, is a great beginning to understanding the real dangers in our environment.

The Cancer Prevention Coalition (CPC), founded by Samuel S. Epstein, M.D., an expert on the causes & prevention of cancer, is a nationwide coalition of leading independent experts in cancer prevention and public health, together with citizen activists and representatives of organized labor, public interest, environmental, and women's health groups. Their goal is to reduce escalating cancer rates through a comprehensive strategy of outreach, public education, advocacy, and public policy initiatives to establish prevention as the nation's foremost cancer policy. The resources at their website are incredible, yet frightening, as we are sure that much of the information will be new and thus alarming to many. For yourselves and your human family members, be sure to check out the site resources on Avoidable Childhood & Adult Cancers.

Although the coalition's information is geared toward humans and not companion animals, the health of animal companions mirrors our own. Researchers have discovered a genetic cancer link between dogs and humans. Jaime Modiano, V.M.D., Ph.D., University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine and Cancer Center, and Matthew Breen, Ph.D., North Carolina State University's Center for Comparative Medicine and Translational Research, collaborated on this research study. Drs. Modiano and Breen have found that humans and dogs share the same genetic basis for certain types of cancer. Furthermore, the researchers say that because of the way the genomes have evolved, getting cancer may be inevitable for some humans and dogs.

Check out Dr. Epstein's latest articles here. And, also look at his fact packed, and quite helpful books, which include:

• The Safe Shopper's Bible: A Consumer's Guide to Nontoxic Household Products, Cosmetics, and Food
• Toxic Beauty: How Cosmetics and Personal Care Products Endanger Your Health . . . And What You Can Do about It  
• Unreasonable Risk, 2nd Edition
• What's In Your Milk?: Exposé of Industry & Government Cover-Up on Dangers of the Genetically Engineered (rBGH) Milk You're Drinking
• Cancer-Gate: How to Win the Losing Cancer War

Pollutants to Avoid — Scientific data show many pollutants cause cancer in animal studies. Tests of toxicities in humans are unethical, so precautionary avoidance of pollutants is the safest policy. American health activists are encouraging legislators to bring US policies up to European standards of workplace and environmental safety. In the United States, manufacturers still fight against costly pollution regulations. Citizens fight for regulations. You can learn what pollutants to guard against. Become an informed citizen.

Products & Ingredients to Avoid —  Cosmetics, foods, even milk may contain contaminants not listed on their labels. Find out who’s influencing U. S. product safety laws.

Pets for the Environment was formed in early 2008 when Eddie joined forces with the scientists at Environmental Working Group (EWG). The mission: To create a healthy environment for pets and people by demanding toxic chemical reform legislation in the U.S.

I’m a dog on a mission.

When nonstick chemicals from a frying pan killed my buddy Feathers, and my feline friend Cleo and I found out that we’re full of chemicals too, I was barking mad. Did you know that the humans’ government doesn’t make companies test chemicals for safety before they start using them in our toys, furniture, or even our food? And where do you think all those flame retardants, mercury, and perfluorochemicals end up? In us! And I know because I was tested. The chemicals in me are the same kinds of chemicals in people, and scientists think that other cats and dogs—and horses and birds and bunnies and snakes—around the country are full of them, too.

That’s why I started Pets for the Environment. The humans have made a mess, and they aren’t doing anything about it. I need your help educating our humans and getting their government to pass toxic chemical reform legislation. They’ll never listen to just one pet, but all of us barking and meowing and cawing and squeaking together can make a lot of noise. Click here to join Pets for the Environment and help me make a difference!

EWG is a nonprofit research organization based in Washington, DC that uses the power of information to protect human health and the environment. Their research is helping both people and their companion animals, as toxins and pollutants are resulting in the same diseases being seen in us all, two or four-footed.

Sixty-three percent of Americans own at least one companion animal, and sadly, most are virtually unprotected from toxic chemicals. Here are some tips to lowering their exposure to toxins.

1.	Choose organic or free-range pet foods and treats. Check labels to avoid the chemical preservatives butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), and ethoxyquin. The foods and treats here meet this standard. Check out the foods, treats, and chews that we offer.
2.	Limit meals with fish and seafood products that are high in mercury. Limit your cat's exposure to mercury in seafood, and choose organic or free-range ingredients rather than “by-products.” A 2009 Federal Study on Mercury Contamination found the toxic substance in every fish tested at nearly 300 streams across the country, a finding that underscores how widespread mercury pollution has become. Vital Choice's wild fish and shellfish are free of hazardous levels of contaminants, as you can see in this revealing mercury chart. Also see this Purity page.
3.	Provide organic, or 'safe' vegetables & fruit from the "Clean 15" list to minimize exposure to dangerous toxins from pesticides. We have a vegetable garden that is not treated with pesticides or sprays. Our Golden Alfie loves the asparagus, romaine, string beans, sweet potatoes, and more. Go below to find out more about pesticides and those fruits & veggies in the "Dirty Dozen" and "Clean 15", and to get EWG's Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce.
4.	Clean drink: Use a reverse osmosis, faucet-mounted, or pitcher filter to remove contaminants before filling your pet’s water bowl. We have filtered water to our kitchen faucet and refrigerator/freezer through a Culligan water system as there are more than 140 contaminants with no enforceable safety limits in the nation’s drinking water. How does your tap water stack up? Search EWG's tap water database to see what you and your pets are drinking.
5.	Avoid chemicals leaching into food by going easy on processed, canned or fast foods. Read about Bisphenol A, a toxic food-can lining ingredient associated with birth defects.
6.	Click on image to expand Good Life Gear Pet Water Bottle    Click on image to expand    H204K9 25oz. Stainless   Steel Dog Bottle & Bowl     Avoid chemicals leaching into the environment and food by reducing exposure to chemicals in plastic. Try to not use plastic bottles and never microwave plastic. We only use stainless steel water bottles now for our dog walks. Learn more in these articles: BPA, Chemical Used To Make Plastics, Found To Leach From Polycarbonate Drinking Bottles Into Humans and Plastic Water Bottles May Pose Health Hazard. To reduce exposure, try doing the following:      ► Use safer dishware made from materials like glass or stainless steel.      ► Use a paper towel instead of plastic wrap in the microwave.      ► Don't microwave food in plastic containers (put food on a plate instead).      ► Store food in glass or Pyrex containers, rather than plastic.      ► Hand wash plastics to reduce wear and tear, and discard scratched or worn plastic containers.      ► Avoid use of plastic containers with the number 3 or 7 on them.      ► Plastics with the number 1 are single use only. Recycle after use.      ► If you use plastic bottles, don't heat them. Check out Good Life Gear's Pet Water Bottle and the new H204K9 25oz. Stainless Steel Dog Bottle & Bowl (also with carrying sling) that are both Stainless Steel and BPA FREE (shown here on right).
7.	Avoid phthalates, common industrial chemicals used in PVC plastics, solvents, and synthetic fragrances. They are endocrine disruptors linked to problems of the reproductive system and also to asthma and allergies. When they tested 289 people in 2000, the CDC found phthalates in all of the subjects' blood at surprisingly high levels. Lack of federal oversight leaves consumers on their own when it comes to pet toys. Minimize exposure by avoiding:      ►  Nail polish: Dibutyl phthalate is often used to make nail polish chip-resistant (shortened to DBP in contents list).      ►  Vinyl toys: Phthalates make vinyl (PVC) toys soft, so don't give them to pets/kids. Opt instead for wooden & phthalate-free toys.      ►  Paint: Paints and other hobby products may contain phthalates as solvents, so be sure to use them in a well-ventilated space.      ►  Air Fresheners: Just like fragrances in personal care products, most air fresheners contain phthalates.
8.	Buy products with natural fibers, like cotton and wool, that are naturally fire resistant. Use EWG's list of products and manufacturers to avoid the chemical flame retardant PBDE.
9.	Throw out Fido's Bed. Replace older foam pet bedding, and replace or reupholster furniture with exposed or crumbling foam where flame retardants are found. We now feature memory foam beds and furniture that are not sprayed with flame retardants. Inexpensive imported foams often contain flame retardants that are toxic to your dog.
10.	Vacuum often with a HEPA-filter vacuum. We love our Dyson Animal vacuum that comes with a lifetime HEPA filter. A Message From Rochelle Lesser, Foundation President: I recently had to buy a new vacuum for the foundation as I had surely killed my original and beloved purple (DC07) Dyson Animal vacuum (by not doing the simple maintenance of washing out the filter). Dyson vacuums are not cheap. But, trust me, there is no other brand to buy these days. Ask any dealer and they will tell you that the return level on these vacuums is unbelievably low at much less than 1%. I found only one guy (Matt, the owner at Max-Vacuum) who was actually willing to be honest with me. He talked me into buying a less expensive model, in fact, if you can believe that. And, his website had a buying guide that you can find at no other that answers questions that actually make sense and are important. There is no affiliate program and Matt is not paying me to make this recommendation. I am just wanting to pass on some valuable shopping information that can benefit all my fellow animal pals. When you find someone who is genuinely honest and wants to make a living but also do it with a conscience, it’s just a great feeling to spread the news to others so that they can benefit as well. So, now I have two Dysons from Max-Vacuum (DC25 and DC41), and I could not be happier. Not happy enough to be vacuuming as often as I should, but for a person allergic to dust and virtually everything in the air, these are great units to have.
11.	Clean without chemicals (using cold water). Although we cannot live without our Ladybug (see below), for quick SMALL jobs we use the Active Ion Pro Hand-held Sprayer which transforms regular temperature tap water into a powerful cleaner that works as well as or better than other general-purpose, commercial chemical and "green" cleaning products.
12.	Clean without chemicals (using steam vapor) and have a Health Intentional Home with Ladybug Vapor Steam Cleaners w/TANCS. This is not the same as a clean home. This is a home that has no dust mites, fleas, bed bugs, bacteria, biofilms, etc. And, having this type of home is merely a vapor mist away. This line of products will lower exposure to toxins for the ENTIRE family ― furry or not. We have been searching and searching for years now for the best steam cleaner, one that will affect health as well as clean. And we are thrilled that we finally found a product that truly stands above all of the rest. There is no need to even mention the many steam cleaners on the market, or even the steam vapor cleaners. And, there are many. But, the reason is this: it would be like comparing apples and oranges. We learned about Health Intentional Cleaning, ONLY available through Advanced Vapor's TANCS systems. Using roughly a quart of tap water per hour, their quiet, portable multi-purpose appliances create a high-heat, low-moisture vapor that thoroughly removes contaminants and leaves any surface free of chemical residue. ONLY Advanced Vapor's TANCS® system is backed by solid research. Chuanwu Xi, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental Health at the University of Michigan and his research team found that treated steam from a novel steam disinfection system utilizing TANCS® technology rapidly kills highly resistant biofilms with greater than 99.95 % killing efficiency in a 3 second treatment, and to a non-detectable level in a less than 10 second treatment. “Scientific studies have found that biofilms can be up to 1000 times more resistant to biocide inactivation than are suspended microbes,” said Dr. Xi. “It is extremely difficult to get rid of biofilms and kill them." "The efficacy of the steam vapor system is important because even strong chemical disinfectants such as bleach when allowed 20 minutes of dwell time did not achieve the same degree of kill that the TANCS-equipped unit accomplished in three seconds. This device is one of the very promising technologies that combine both rapid physical dispersal and disinfection functions. The dry steam generated can easily break the barrier of biofilm structures and kill cells inside the biofilms. It also does so without polluting the environment or risk of creating antibiotic-resistant bacteria." Background: Environmental surfaces in health care settings are often contaminated by microorganisms, and biofilms can develop on the surfaces in these settings. Steam vapor technology is of potential use for disinfection of biofilms on the environmental surfaces. Methods: We tested the disinfection efficacy of a thermal-accelerated nanocrystal sanitation (TANCS)-equipped steam vapor technology against biofilms through disinfecting biofilms developed by 4 bacterial strains—Escherichia coli, Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Staphylococcus aureus—on an identical test surface (i.e., polycarbonate) and biofilms developed by E coli on 4 different test surfaces: polycarbonate, rubber, stainless steel, and ceramics. Results: Our data show that a 3-second steam treatment rapidly killed each biofilm tested (>99.95 % killing efficiency). For biofilms developed on different surfaces, 3-second steam treatment achieved 99.95% killing of E coli biofilms developed on different surfaces. Compared with chemical disinfection, steam treatment for <1 second a similar level of biofilm disinfection as provided by incubation with 10-ppm sodium hypochlorite (bleach) for 10-20 minutes of contact time. Conclusions: Our data suggest that the TANCS-equipped steam vapor disinfection is an emerging and potentially useful technology for disinfecting biofilms on environmental surfaces. Published online March 13, 2012.
13.	Skip the Stain Repellants: Don’t get optional stain-proof treatments on couches, carpets and car upholstery—they’re loaded with toxic perfluorochemicals.
14.	Take off your shoes at the door in order to minimize your pets’ exposure to toxic chemicals in house dust. This cuts down on dust-bound pollutants in the home.
15.	Poison on the Deck: If you suspect your deck was made with arsenic-treated wood, treat it with a sealant every six months and don’t let pets play or sleep underneath it. Wash with mild soap and water, but never power wash! Order a test kit to find out if your wooden deck, picnic table, or playset is leaching arsenic.
16.	Use ceramic cookware and avoid nonstick pans. An overheated nonstick pan can kill pet birds, and it gives off chemicals that may be bad for other pets and people too. Try cast iron instead. Read EWG's article on Teflon health concerns. You can avoid  exposure to these chemicals by also doing the following:      ► Never preheat your nonstick cookware on high. Empty pans can reach high temperatures very quickly.      ► Stick to as low a temperature as possible to safely cook foods.      ► Don't put nonstick cookware in an oven over 500 degrees.      ► Run an exhaust fan over the stove while using nonstick cookware.
17.	Green Lawns: Care for your lawn without using insecticides, which may cause nervous system damage in pets that walk on the treated lawn, eat the grass, or breathe in the chemicals.
18.	Toss out those Flea Collars. Not only are flea collars generally ineffective, they’re also a source of constant toxic exposure for your pet and family. Instead, vacuum often and thoroughly, bathe your pet regularly, and use a non-toxic repellent such as Liquid Net for Pets, The Ultimate Insect Repellent.
19.	Avoid perfume, cologne and products with added fragrance. Most air fresheners contain phthalates just like fragrances in personal care products. Aroma Paws has a chemical-free spray that is pH Balanced, Eco-Friendly, and Bio-Degradable. This citrus blend is a combination of Orange, Lemongrass & Peppermint Oils.
20.	Safe Suds: Use a chemical and fragrance-free shampoo for your pets. Just like human products, pet grooming product manufacturers aren’t required to test their grooming products for safety—but unlike human products, they’re not even required to list ingredients on labels. Aroma Paws hypoallergenic & fragrance free Shampoo & Conditioner in One is a blend of Organic Honey, Colloidal Oatmeal & Pro Vitamin B5. It was designed for dogs with sensitive skin and allergies to the dyes and chemicals found in many pet grooming lines. This chemical-free shampoo is pH Balanced, Eco-Friendly, and Bio-Degradable.
21.	Get biodegradable, compostable doo-bags for when you go on walks with your pooch—or just reuse bags like plastic newspaper wrappers.
22.	Use kitty litter made of plant sources like wheat or corn. Clay-based kitty litter is strip-mined, causing extreme environmental damage during extraction. We only use the World's Best Cat Litter in our Cindy's litter box as is it an all-natural, organic cat litter made from whole-kernel corn.
23.	Learn your personal body burden. Take EWG's step-by-step tour of your home to learn the toxic truth about how household products contribute to your body burden of industrial chemicals.

Why Should You Care About Pesticides?
The growing consensus among scientists is that small doses of pesticides and other chemicals can cause lasting damage to human health, especially during fetal development and early childhood. Every year, new research is published demonstrating the toxicity of pesticides to human health and the environment, often at doses previously declared "safe" by the pesticide industry and the government. Different pesticides have been linked with a variety of toxic effects, including: Nervous system effects, Carcinogenic effects, Hormone system effects, and Skin, eye and lung irritation.

Pesticides are unique among the chemicals we release into the environment; they have inherent toxicity because they are designed to kill living organisms – insects, plants, and fungi that are considered "pests." Because they are toxic by design, many pesticides pose health risks to people, risks that have been acknowledged by independent research scientists and physicians across the world. Scientists now know enough about the long-term consequences of ingesting these powerful chemicals to advise that we minimize our consumption of pesticides.

What’s the Difference?
An EWG simulation of thousands of consumers eating high and low pesticide diets shows that people can lower their pesticide exposure by almost 80 percent by avoiding the top twelve most contaminated fruits and vegetables and eating the least contaminated instead. Eating the 12 most contaminated fruits and vegetables will expose a person to about 10 pesticides per day, on average. Eating the 15 least contaminated will expose a person to less than 2 pesticides per day. Less dramatic comparisons will produce less dramatic reductions, but without doubt using the Guide provides people with a way to make choices that lower pesticide exposure in the diet.

Will Washing and Peeling Help?
Nearly all the studies used to create these lists assume that people rinse or peel fresh produce. Rinsing reduces but does not eliminate pesticides. Peeling helps, but valuable nutrients often go down the drain with the skin. The best approach: eat a varied diet, rinse all produce and buy organic when possible. Learn more about reducing exposure here.

How Was This Guide Developed?
In June 2011, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) released the seventh edition of its Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce with updated information on 53 fruits and vegetables and their total pesticide loads. EWG highlights the worst offenders with its “Dirty Dozen” list and the cleanest conventional produce with its “Clean 15” list.

Analysts at EWG synthesized data collected from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration from 2000 to 2009. Produce is ranked based on a composite score, equally weighing six factors that reflect how many pesticides was found in testing of on each type of the produce and at what levels. Most samples are washed and peeled prior to being tested, so the rankings reflect the amounts of the chemicals likely present on the food when is it eaten.

Notable changes in the new guide included apples’ rank as the most contaminated produce, jumping three spots from last year to replace celery at the top of the “Dirty Dozen” list. According to USDA, pesticides showed up on 98 percent of the more than 700 apple samples tested.

Pesticides can be extremely toxic to human health and the environment. U.S. and international government agencies alike have linked pesticides to nervous system toxicity, cancer, hormone system disruption and IQ deficits among children. "I really worry that pesticides on food are unhealthy for the tender, developing brains and bodies of young children," said Dr. Harvey Karp, MD, FAAP, creator of the book/DVD The Happiest Baby on the Block. "Parents don't realize they're often feeding their little ones fruits and veggies with the highest pesticide residues. Studies show even small amounts of these chemicals add up and can impair a child's health when they're exposed during the early, critical stages of their development. When pesticide sprayers have to bundle up in astronaut-like suits for protection, it's clear parents want to feed their families food containing as little of these toxic chemicals as possible."

"Pesticides, while designed specifically to kill certain organisms, are also associated with a host of very serious health problems in people, including neurological deficits, ADHD, endocrine system disruption and cancer," said Andrew Weil, MD, Founder and Director, Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine and a renowned medical expert on natural health and wellness. "My advice to consumers is to whenever possible avoid exposure to pesticides, including pesticide residues on food."

Consumers who choose five servings of fruits and vegetables a day from EWG's Clean 15 list rather than from the Dirty Dozen can lower the volume of pesticides they consume by 92 percent, according to EWG’s calculations. They will also eat fewer types of pesticides. Picking five servings of fruits and vegetables from the 12 most-contaminated products would result in consuming an average of 14 different pesticides a day. Choosing five servings from the 15 least contaminated fruits and vegetables would result in consuming fewer than two pesticides per day.

The health benefits of a diet rich in fruits and vegetables outweigh the risks of pesticide exposure, and EWG strongly recommends that everyone follow USDA’s recommendation to eat five servings of fruits and vegetables every day. EWG’s Shopper’s Guide makes it easy to meet that goal while reducing your exposure to pesticides. “Pesticides are toxic,” said Sonya Lunder, Senior Analyst at EWG. “They are designed to kill things and most are not good for you. The question is, how bad are they?”

Plastic Water Bottles May Pose Health Hazard  plastic2
By Emily Sohn, Discovery News

April 28, 2009 -- With all of the bad press swirling around certain types of plastic lately, regular old plastic water bottles have maintained a reputation as safe, at least as far as human health is concerned. New evidence, however, suggests that plastic water bottles may not be so benign after all.

Scientists in Germany have found that PET plastics -- the kind used to make water bottles, among many other common products -- may also harbor hormone-disrupting chemicals that leach into the water.

It's too soon to say whether drinking out of PET plastic bottles is harmful to human health, said lead researcher Martin Wagner, an ecotoxicologist at Goethe University in Frankfurt. But it now appears possible that some as-yet unidentified chemicals in these plastics have the potential to interfere with estrogen and other reproductive hormones, just as the infamous plasticizers BPA and phthalates do.

"What we found was really surprising to us," Wagner said. "If you drink water from plastic bottles, you have a high probability of drinking estrogenic compounds."

The study adds to growing concerns about products that span the plastic spectrum, added Shanna Swan, an epidemiologist at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in New York.

"This is coming at a good time because the use of bottles for consuming water is getting very bad press now because of its carbon footprint," she said. "It's just another nail in the coffin of bottled water, the way I see it."

Wagner and a colleague used genetically engineered yeast to analyze 20 samples of mineral water. Nine samples came our of glass bottles. Nine were bottled in PET plastic. And two were in cardboard, juice-like boxes.

The specialized yeast -- which change color in the presence of estrogen-like compounds -- revealed estrogenic activity in seven of the nine plastic bottles (and both cardboard samples), compared with just three of the nine glass ones. Overall, Wagner said, levels of these compounds in the water were surprisingly high.

German mineral water comes from natural springs. So, to see if the estrogenic compounds were actually coming from the water itself, Wagner emptied the bottles and replaced the water with a pure snail medium and a tiny species of snail that is especially sensitive to estrogenic compounds.

Eight weeks later, female snails living in plastic bottles had more than twice as many embryos inside their bodies compared to the glass-grown snails. "Something from the plastic," Wagner said, "must have leached out and changed the reproductive patterns of our snails."

Wagner cautions against jumping to conclusions. Water is still a healthy beverage, he said. And until the compounds at work in the snail study have been identified, it's just not possible to know if PET plastics pose a human health risk.

Still, tests in his lab have shown far less estrogenic activity in tap water than in even the most "ultra-pure" bottled waters.

"Having done all of these experiments, I started drinking tap water," Wagner told Discovery News. "It might have other stuff in it, but at least it doesn't have estrogenic compounds."

It may also be time, Swan said, to reconsider how safe the so-called "safe" plastics really are.

"I used to say: '4, 5, 1, and 2. All the rest are bad for you,'" she said, referring to the recycling codes on plastic products. "Now, I'm not saying that anymore. We don't know about 4, 5, 1, or 2. This raises questions about all plastic bottles."