With all the other perils of life these days, we now have to pay more attention to what we throw in the trash. The best advice, experts say, is to gain access to a shredder and never, repeat never, allow data that can compromise your identity and security to be pitched into any refuse receptacle.

“Shredding has become an absolute necessity, very regrettably,” says Richard Blumenthal, the Connecticut state attorney general. “My view is that people need to tear, trash and destroy any and all records that they discard, even the most innocent-seeming of them, because they are ready fodder for identity thieves.”

Steve Grant of the Hartford Courant interviewed Blumenthal, who runs for exercise near his home in Greenwich, Conn., each morning.

“Very often I will see stuff sticking out of the garbage that looks pretty official,” Blumenthal said. “I am always amazed by the carefree or careless attitude people demonstrate. With enough information, a thief can tap into bank accounts, charge to credit cards and even open new accounts. It’s not always clear how an identity is stolen, but some of the reports on identity-theft give us good reason to think that documents were taken from the trash.”

About 3 percent of an estimated 9.3 million identity-theft cases reported in the United States last year were blamed on theft of documents from household garbage, according to a study conducted for Visa, Wells Fargo and CheckFree Corp.

The bad news is that a shredder is not the total solution to this problem. There are many other ways to be tripped up. One survey shows that many identity-theft cases do not involve online fraud or even dumpster-diving. More often, a friend, relative, acquaintance or household employee has stolen critical information and used it. Or mail was snatched right out of a mailbox.

One of the most unsettling cases on record involved patients at a Texas hospital. A worker in the accounting department of the hospital siphoned data on patients into the computer of a partner in crime. Many individuals were left trying to clear their names and work their way back from the financial setbacks incurred.

The Federal Trade Commission recommends that consumers shred charge receipts, copies of credit applications, insurance forms, physician statements, checks and the bank statement credit card offers received in the mail and expired credit cards.

A shredder does not cost much and many functional units can be obtained for around $25. Such an expense can be fully justified to prevent becoming one of the 10 million or so who face identity-theft and the nightmares that many suffer in trying to get things rectified.

So it seems the best advice is “when in doubt, shred it out” — or even if there isn’t any doubt, just a slight risk. As one local identity-theft victim noted: “It may seem a nuisance to protect your records, but once you have been through such an ordeal, you’ll readily agree you can’t be too careful.”