Posts Tagged ‘squamous cell carcinoma’
How Cigarette Smoke Affects Your Cat And Other Pets
I don’t smoke, in fact nobody is allowed to smoke in or near my house, or car. I guess I’m a bit obsessive about it, but then I’ve learned long ago that it’s way more fun being healthy than being sick. Still, a lot of people smoke, some of my friends also, and I’ve found that often the biggest incentive to quitting is to protect those we love. Here is another reason: your love for your pet!
A 2007 University of Minnesota study showed that cats who live with smokers have nicotine and other toxins in their urine.
A 2002 Tufts University study linked second-hand smoke to cancer in cats. The study found that cats living with smokers are twice as likely to develop malignant lymphoma—the most common feline cancer–as those in non-smoking households. Lymphoma kills 3 out of 4 afflicted cats within 12 months.
A 2007 Tufts School of Veterinary Medicine study linked second-hand smoke to oral cancer in cats (squamous cell carcinoma.) Cats living with more than one smoker and cats exposed to environmental tobacco smoke for longer than five years had even higher rates of this cancer.
The ASPCA, one of the largest animal rights groups in the U.S., lists tobacco smoke as a toxin that is dangerous to pets. Dr. Sharon Gwaltney-Brant, medical director of the ASPCA’s Animal Poison Control Center says:
“Nicotine from secondhand smoke can have effects to the nervous systems of cats and dogs. Environmental tobacco smoke has been shown to contain numerous cancer-causing compounds, making it hazardous for animals as well as humans.”
A recent study from Harvard Medical School, published in the January 2009 Journal of Pediatrics, found additional health risks associated with what they termed “third-hand smoke,” describing the invisible yet toxic gases and particles clinging to smokers’ hair and clothing, cars, and carpeting that lingers long after the second-hand smoke has cleared the room.
One reason cats are so vulnerable to the carcinogens in tobacco smoke is they are meticulous groomers. Daily grooming over a long period of time can expose their delicate oral tissues to hazardous amounts of carcinogens.
Birds who sit on a smoker’s nicotine-coated hand often develop dermatitis and end up pulling out their own feathers.
Another study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology found that dogs in smoking households have a 60 percent greater risk of lung cancer.
