Yet One More Reason to Quit Smoking – for Your Pet's Sake

As if there weren’t enough reasons to quit smoking, here’s another one - pet ownership. It seems second-hand smoke can affect animals, too. Lymphomas in cats, nasal and lung cancer in dogs, and ill-effects in birds have all been reported in connection with smoke in the home.

In a study reported in the journal Tobacco Control, Henry Ford (Detroit) Health System physicians have described the results of a survey they conducted amongst pet owners. A web-based survey was used with 3,300-odd respondents. The questions covered smoking behavior by the pet owners and people living with them, what policies they had concerning smoking, and whether information on the risk of smoking on pets would influence their behavior.

In the replies, 21% were current smokers and 27% lived with at least one smoker. Among the pet-owning smokers, 28% said that information on the risks of smoking to their pets would motivate them to try to quit smoking. And non-smoking pet owners living with smokers would ask the smoker to quit, or not smoke indoors. Almost half of the respondents requested more information on smoking and quitting.

The scientists concluded that educational campaigns aimed at pet owners could be successful in getting them to quit, and/or make their homes smoke-free. They felt that such information would be particularly effective in pet owners living alone with their pets.