Radioactive Pet Bowls Sold at Chicago Petco Stores

Can you believe this? Stainless steel pet bowls contaminated with low levels of radioactive material might have been shipped to 11 Petco stores throughout Illinois.

Two contaminated bowls were discovered on Friday (June 22)  by state inspectors at a Petco store at 2000 N. Clybourn Ave., Chicago, according to a release from the Illinois Emergency Management Agency (IEMA). The state agency also said five possibly contaminated bowls might have been sold from the Clybourn store between June 14 and 15.

According to a report from the Herald News newspaper, the bowls contained traces of cobalt-60,, but the highest radiation level detect was so low that holding one of the bowl for about six and a half days would be equivalent to an x-ray scan. The newspaper story quoted IEMA Director Jonathon Monken saying that the bowls pose no immediate health risk (to people). I ask, what if pets eat from them? How do they hold up in the dishwasher? Can radiation there be spread to other dishes in the dishwasher? All questions which we should never need to ask.

The shipment containing the contaminated bowls was received by a distribution center in Joliet, where inspectors found “several items” that imitated radiation, the IEMA said. There is no word, thus far, were the pet bowls are from (unlikely to have been made in the U.S.A. – though I don’t know that).

The bowls have since been pulled from shelves, and state and federal officials are working with Petco officials to isolate any contaminated bowls, the IEMA said.

The IEMA recommends that anyone who believes they purchased a contaminated bowl should call the store where they bought it.

Among the Petco stores that might have received contaminated bowls are:

• 2000 North Clybourn, Chicago

• 440 North Orleans St., Chicago

• 629 East Dundee Road, Palatine

• 2204 S. Harlem, North Riverside

• 4411 16th St., Moline

• 1310-1312 E. Main St., Carbondale

• 2046 N. State Route 50, Bourbonnais

• 199 S. Route 83, Elmhurst

• 9645 Skokie Blvd., Skokie

• 17930 Halsted St., Homewood

• 11720 S. Marshfield, Chicago