Passive Smoking and Cats
Passive Smoking Puts Cats at Risk
It's surprised a lot of people though it makes total sense, but pets are just as much at risk from cancer due to passive smoking as humans. Yet saying that, few people consider quitting smoking when they have pets like they might for the sake of children or other family members. Research in the United States has been conducted into the links between Feline Lymphoma and smoking in 180 cats over a period of seven years and the findings should encourage all animal lovers to put out their cigarettes for the last time.
Feline lymphoma kills three in four cats within just a year of diagnosis and the study found that, adjusting for age and other factors, cats exposed to second-hand smoke were twice as likely to develop the disease than those from non-smoking households. If they were exposed to it for five years or more that risk tripled and if two people in the house smoked cats were four times more likely to develop cancer.
Whilst all pets are at risk, vets have said that cats' fur tends to hold more smoke particles than other pets and always smells more strongly of smoke than, for example, dogs. This could be due to dogs going out more or being thoroughly bathed more often. Because of this, and also because cats lick their fur more often and so ingest more smoke particles than dogs, there is a much higher rate of lymphoma in cats than other pets.
Authors of the study hope that cat owners will think about quitting smoking for the sakes of their pets, even if they won't do it for themselves.