Smokers risk giving pets cancer
Cats are twice as likely to get cancer if their owners smoke, according to an anti-smoking group.
Smokefree, run by the Health Promotion Agency, is urging pet owners to ‘‘think of the kitties’’ as it continues its Smokefree Aotearoa 2025 campaign, hoping to cut smoking to under 5 per cent of the population in eight years.
Their post on Facebook warning pet owners of the risk got 660 likes, 182 comments and 71 shares.
A Smokefree spokeswoman said an article in the American Journal of Epidemiology prompted the post.
A study of 80 cats diagnosed with malignant lymphoma, a potentially fatal cancer that attacks the immune system, found cats exposed to secondhand smoke at home were 2.4 times more likely to develop the cancer, the article said.
The more frequently their owner smoked, the more the risk increased.
Marlborough vet Dr Peter Ehrlich said people were usually quite surprised when staff at his Blenheim clinic told them secondhand smoke could be harmful for their pets.
‘‘I’ve been a vet for 30 years and there does seems to be a lot less people smoking. But I think that people who still smoke just don’t consider how it might affect their pets,’’ Ehrlich said.
‘‘The message about secondhand smoke affecting kids is out there, but it doesn’t necessarily follow on that people think about their pets. I think it needs to be pointed out.’’
Smoking around cats with asthma could make their condition worse, he said.
While malignant lymphoma in humans could be treated with chemotherapy, medication and radiation therapy, it could not be treated in animals, Ehrlich said.
‘‘All we can do is contain the symptoms and provide palliative care. It’s devastating, it kills them.’’
University of Otago department of public health associate pro- fessor George Thompson said most mammals and birds had similar respiratory and circulatory systems to humans, so they were also at risk.
‘‘Basically, there is no known safe level of secondhand smoke for humans,’’ Thompson said.
‘‘The experience over 75 years for humans is that more and more cancers have been found to be caused by [secondhand smoke]. Since the 1980s and before, there has been evidence that the risk of a number of cancers in animals can be increased.’’
People should smoke outside to decrease the risk, but should bear in mind that smoking near doorways allowed smoke to drift inside, he said.