Skip to content

Thursday, Apr. 8, 2021

Does Amazon spray chemicals on its shipping boxes that are harmful to pets?

Sarah Thompson, Lead Stories
no

Amazon says it does not treat its cardboard shipping boxes with either pesticides or disinfectants. A box industry spokesman says he does not know of any shippers who spray cardboard boxes with chemicals harmful to pets. A chemist who studied potential risks of cardboard to pets said there is no danger. A rumor spread around Christmastime with unsubstantiated claims of pets — specifically pet rats and cats — falling ill or dying after being in contact with shipping boxes, with the rumors focusing on Amazon packaging. A spokesperson for Amazon said nothing is sprayed on its boxes. A spokesperson for a national network of specialty and emergency pet hospitals said its facilities had not seen any cases "relating to cardboard box toxicity."

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Sources

About fact briefs

Fact briefs are bite-sized, well-sourced explanations that offer clear "yes" or "no" answers to questions, confusions, and unsupported claims circulating online. They rely on publicly available data and documents, often from the original source. Fact briefs are written and published by Gigafact contributor publications.

See all fact briefs

Lead Stories is a fact checking and debunking website at the intersection of big data and journalism that launched in 2015. It scouts for trending stories, images, videos and posts that contain false information in order to fact check them as quickly as possible. It actively monitors the fake-news ecosystem and doesn’t wait for reader tips or reports before getting started on a story.

Learn More

Latest Fact Briefs

Be a Friend of facts

Help us fund more great fact briefs like this one.