CNN is featuring a story today on keeping your home and your family safe from toxins commonly found in homes. They cite non-stick cookware, fast food packaging and microwave popcorn bags as dangerous for emitting perfluorochemicals (PFCs). They discuss potential pollutants in tap water that include lead and arsenic, though they do say tap is still less polluted than bottled because it’s more regulated. They tell us that household linens and furniture are full of flame retardant chemicals and that decks and outdoor play sets, up till 2004, were treated with arsenic.

The article also offers some tips for keeping you and your kids safe, but it fails to mention how to keep your pets safe. After all, it’s a safe assumption that if the arsenic in the water you drink is going to give you cancer, it can’t be great for your dog either. Back in April, MedHeadlines posted an article claiming these every day household toxins are actually more dangerous to our pets than they are to us. Flame retardant levels were 23 times higher in cats, PFCs were found 2.4 times more often in dogs, and mercury levels in cats were found to be 5 times higher than humans.

So while CNN tells us to use a filter and to wash our feet after walking on an older deck, we can take the same precautions with our pets. Remember that they need filtered water too and that their paws will not only pick up arsenic on the deck or pesticides on the lawn, but that they’ll come inside and lick their paws, speeding up ingestion. 63% of American households have at least one pet, so it seems like an important issue for any pet owner to remember.