Smoking could harm your dog
2009-02-10 09:01
Washington - People unwilling to
quit smoking to improve their own health may consider giving up
cigarettes to spare their pets the harmful effects of
second-hand smoke, US researchers said on Monday.
Twenty-eight percent of pet owners who smoke said in a
survey they would try to quit based on knowledge that
second-hand smoke could harm their dogs, cats and other pets,
the researchers wrote in the journal Tobacco Control.
Another 11% said they would think about quitting.
"It's not necessarily that people love their pets more than
they love themselves or their children, it's just another
motivational factor for people to consider quitting smoking,"
Sharon Milberger of the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit,
who led the research, said in a telephone interview.
Smoking raises risk of cancer in pets
Milberger said asking smokers to quit for the sake of their
pets may be an appealing new way to get them to throw away
their cigarettes.
Of the 71 million pet owners in the United
States, about a fifth are smokers, Milberger estimated.
Just under 20% of Americans smoke, according to the
US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
Just as second-hand smoke can harm people, studies indicate
it can raise a pet's risk of lung cancer and other forms of
cancer, allergies, eye and skin diseases and respiratory
problems, the researchers said.
The findings were based on a Web-based survey of 3 293 US
pet owners, mostly from Michigan.
Smoking behaviour examined
Among the non-smokers who owned pets and lived with someone
who did smoke, 16% said they would ask that person to
quit and 24% said they would tell the smoker to light up
outside instead of indoors, the study found.
"It would be hard to believe that there's any smoker out
there now who doesn't know that smoking is bad for them and the
people around them," Milberger said.
"For tobacco control advocates, on our team we can now have
vets and kennels and pet supply stores. So, for example, when
someone takes Fluffy in to the vet, the vet can ask them about
their smoking behaviour and whether they allow smoking in their
home," added Milberger, a non-smoker with a 1-year-old cat.