Air Pollution Dog Blog

If you think you have COVID-19, it might be best to stay away from your pets, says the author of a Dutch study that found a surprising number of dogs and cats may be getting infected.

"About one out of five pets will catch the disease from their owners," said Dr Els Broens of Utrecht University in the Netherlands, although there are no known cases of the disease spreading from pets to humans.

"Luckily, the animals do not get very ill from it."

In Broens' study, presented this week in a paper at the European Congress of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, 156 dogs and 154 cats from 196 households were tested in homes where humans were known to have had a coronavirus infection.

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What is Particulate Matter?

Airborne particulate matter (PM) is not a single pollutant, but rather is a mixture of many chemical species. It is a complex mixture of solids and aerosols composed of small droplets of liquid, dry solid fragments, and solid cores with liquid coatings. Particles vary widely in size, shape and chemical composition, and may contain inorganic ions, metallic compounds, elemental carbon, organic compounds, and compounds from the earth’s crust. Particles are defined by their diameter for air quality regulatory purposes. Those with a diameter of 10 microns or less (PM10) are inhalable into the lungs and can induce adverse health effects. Fine particulate matter is defined as particles that are 2.5 microns or less in diameter (PM2.5). Therefore, PM2.5 comprises a portion of PM10.

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Many pet owners are asking questions about the safety of a dog wearing an air filter face mask. Can a dog wear an air filter mask? Is it safe? What are the warnings? What are the benefits? These are important questions with increasing air pollution problems from wildfire smoke, desert dust, volcanic ash, red tide, and mold from hurricanes. 

Do Air Filter Face Masks for Dogs Exist?

Yes, K9 Mask® launched a Kickstarter campaign in March of 2019 for the first production of an air filter mask for dogs. The campaign was fully funded and the first masks were produced in the summer of 2019. All of this happened before the coronavirus pandemic. K9 Mask® by Good Air Team first saw the need to protect dogs from wildfire smoke in California. After the destruction caused by the Camp and Paradise wildfires in 2018 they knew something had to be done to solve the problem of air pollution affecting pets.

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No one wants to hear news about a coronavirus. We are tired of it. But, the more we know the better we can try to live. This news comes from Malaysia where scientists have connected a coronavirus in dogs that might be transmitted to humans.

In the past 20 years, new coronaviruses have emerged from animals with remarkable regularity. In 2002, SARS-CoV jumped from civets into people. Ten years later, MERS emerged from camels. Then in 2019, SARS-CoV-2 began to spread around the world.

For many scientists, this pattern points to a disturbing trend: Coronavirus outbreaks aren't rare events and will likely occur every decade or so.

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