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Review
. 2023 Sep 14;13(18):2923.
doi: 10.3390/ani13182923.

Pets, Genuine Tools of Environmental Pollutant Detection

Cristina Hegedus  1 , Luisa Andronie  2 , Paul Uiuiu  1 , Eugen Jurco  3 , Eva Andrea Lazar  4 , Silvana Popescu  5
Affiliations
Review

Pets, Genuine Tools of Environmental Pollutant Detection

Cristina Hegedus et al. Animals (Basel). .

Abstract

In a shared environment, our companion animals became unintended sentinels for pollutant exposure consequences, developing even earlier similar conditions to humans. This review focused on the human-pet cohabitation in an environment we all share. Alongside other species, canine and feline companions are veritable models in human medical research. The latency period for showing chronic exposure effects to pollutants is just a few years in them, compared to considerably more, decades in humans. Comparing the serum values of people and their companion animals can, for example, indicate the degree of poisonous lead load we are exposed to and of other substances as well. We can find 2.4 times higher perfluorochemicals from stain- and grease-proof coatings in canine companions, 23 times higher values of flame retardants in cats, and 5 times more mercury compared to the average levels tested in humans. All these represent early warning signals. Taking these into account, together with the animal welfare orientation of today's society, finding non-invasive methods to detect the degree of environmental pollution in our animals becomes paramount, alongside the need to raise awareness of the risks carried by certain chemicals we knowingly use.

Keywords: biologic contaminants; cats; chemical contaminants; dogs; environmental diseases; environmental pollution; indoor pollution; passive smoking; sentinels.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flowchart of the review process.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Pets, sentinels of environmental heavy metal/metalloid pollution.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Pets, sentinels of passive smoking.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Pets, sentinels of environmental carcinogens.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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