Flame Retardants and Kitty Cats

Technocrat

Flame Retardants and Kitty Cats

zogger

Tue Aug 21 14:32:08 -0700 2007

Chemistry.

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If your pet housecat ever develops hyperthyroidism, you might want to think about some of the materials inside your home. Researchers have found a link between a chemical in flame retardants used in furniture and carpeting, etc and the disease in cats. And as cats and humans are the only animals who can get the disease, they say your cat could warn you in advance to be proactive in mitigating exposure.

..."Janice A. Dye, DVM, Ph.D., at the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency in Research Triangle Park, N.C., and colleagues from there as well as Indiana University and the University of Georgia, report evidence linking the disease to exposure to environmental contaminants called polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), which the researchers found to be elevated in blood samples of hyperthyroid cats. Their findings were based on analysis of blood samples from 23 pet cats, 11 of which had the disease, termed feline hyperthyroidism (FH). PBDE levels in the hyperthyroid cats were three times as high as those in younger, non-hyperthyroid cats."..and don't eat the wet catfood either, there

Flame Retardants and Kitty Cats

Simon

Tue Aug 21 16:20:06 -0700 2007
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Thanks Zogger,

I got a Google Alert on this, but I think it raises some interesting pollution questions. Especially around how we handle uncertainty. The environmental groups want to ban all chemicals which concentrate in human breast milk, and blood, which seems a plausible at least superficially.

Apparently the bulk of PBDEs have already been banned in Europe, leaving only the subset not (yet?) demonstrated to have any adverse effects.

There is a doctoral thesis on the naturally occurring meo-PBDE's by a student from Sweden just on the net, which indicates that the naturally occurring ones have a distinct chemical structure (not necessarily safer, but at least they can potentially be distinguished from man made sources), and also identifies some sea creatures in the Baltic in which the levels are concentrated (presumably because they are the natural source, or predator of such).

The connection with cat food is important, as it had previously been recognized that tinned cat food (or something about the act of eating such food!) was a source of whatever environmental agent was causing feline hyperthyroidism. I thought the people who found the link to tinned cat food, also found a link to cat litter, which is less obviously linked to this announcement (unless cat litter is now flame proof), but might reflect on how much time cats spends outdoors.

The PBDE link also led me to a WWF report where they tested various European ministers for various chemical pollutants. Not sure about the science, but I suspect a very good piece of lobbying.