Second Hand Smoke Affects your Pets
Author: Stop Smoking
The life you save may be your pet's!
There's always been lots of information about second hand smoke and people but did you know there is considerable research proving secondhand smoke is harmful for pets too?
Think about this everytime you light up in your house with Fido on your lap, or when you're taking Spot to his favorite park.
The American Lung Association of New Hampshire provides some stunning facts on why you should consider your pets when you smoke around them.
DOGS
• Dogs that inhale secondhand smoke are three times more likely to develop lung or nasal cancer than dogs living in smoke-free homes.
• Dogs can experience allergic reactions to secondhand smoke. Common symptoms of this allergic reaction are the scratching, biting, and chewing of their skin. Owners often confuse this reaction with fleas or food allergies.
• Cigarette butts can also be deadly. Two butts, if eaten by a puppy, can cause death in a relatively short period of time.
BIRDS
• Birds can react badly to secondhand smoke and may develop eye problems, as well as other respiratory problems like coughing and wheezing.
• Birds that sit on a smoker’s hand can experience contact dermatitis from the nicotine that remains on the smoker’s hand. This can cause them to pull out their feathers.
CATS
• Cats exposed to secondhand smoke in the home have a higher rate of an oral cancer called squamous cell carcinoma, which may be due to the way cats groom themselves. When cats groom themselves they eat the poisons from secondhand smoke that have settled on their fur.
• Cats exposed to secondhand smoke have a higher rate of feline lymphoma, a deadly form of cancer, than cats not exposed to secondhand smoke.
• Cats can develop respiratory problems, lung inflammation, and asthma as a result of secondhand smoke. There are 4,000 chemicals in secondhand smoke, and 43 are known to cause cancer.
Other dangerous issues can occur......
By ingestion of cigarette or cigar butts which contain toxins. Death- From 1-5 cigarettes and from 1/3-1 cigar can be fatal if ingested.
By drinking water that contains cigar or cigarette butts (which can have high concentrations of nicotine)
By ingestion of nicotine replacement gum and patches.
Think again of the health effects:
Breathing problems in dogs and asthmatic-like symptoms in cats
Salivation
Diarrhea
Vomiting
Cardiac abnormalities
Respiratory difficulties and respiratory paralysis
Feline lymphoma in cats
Lung cancer in dogs
Nasal cancer in dogs
Prevention:
As in the case of children and others in the home, don’t smoke.
If you must smoke take it outside- Don’t expose others to your smoke
Don’t allow others to smoke around your pets.
Keep ashtrays clean- Don’t leave butts in them for pets to find.
Dispose of nicotine gum and patches in receptacles that can’t be accessed by pets.
Consider quitting- The health effects of your smoking on pets is just one more good reason to quit.
If you can't or won't quit, consider a safer alternative......electric cigarettes. Products like Green Smoke are devices shaped like a cigarette but they contain a battery, water and nicotine. You'll still get your nicotine fix but you and the people and pets around you won't be inhaling the 4000 toxic chemicals that cause major health issues every day.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/quit-smoking-articles/second-hand-smoke-affects-your-pets-1402595.html
About the Author
Stop Smoking Device and Advice provides articles, information and tips to help you quit smoking.
Electric cigarette reviews, alternative nicotine delivery, safer smoking advice.
[TEMPLATE]cannibis[/TEMPLATE]
can smoking around pets harm them.?
hmmmm?? u know, i hate to ask it, but do u have common sense? if it can hurt ppl, what makes u think it can’t hurt animals?
Does smoking around pets have the same effect as humans?
Indoor animals, Does it hurt them as well?
yes, my neighbours when i was young each used to smoke several packs of smokes a day (there were 3 smokers in this house). i remember watching one of them mow the expansive lawn they had. he would take a pass across the yard, at which point the bag would need emptying, and he would smoke a cig. then take another pass, empty the bag, smoke a cig. repeat. this is just to show you how much they all smoked.
anyways – they had a little terrier, and he developed cancer believe it or not… they had to put him down – i guess chemo for pets wasn’t popular back then.
we’re all animals, and all our DNA is closer in relation to each other than it is different. keep that one in mind when getting your little kitty cat stoned
Should Smoking Around Pets Be Made Illegal…?
…it’s not like they get a choice.
This seems to be taking things a bit far.
First of all, in the final analysis, animals are legally property. They can be acquired at any time, and the owner has the absolute right to kill them at any time (even eat them for dinner if he so chooses, as many do with their pet pigs). The only proscription is that animals may not be cruelly neglected, nor may wanton cruelty be influcted upon them.
(Animal cruelty laws are much older than most people imagine, being passed in the 1860-70s as part of a campaign for moral improvement. In fact, the first person ever prosecuted for beating his child in New York was prosecuted under the laws against cruelty to animals, since a law against child cruelty did not yet exist (the state legislature of course passed one next year) This does not, however, alter the animal’s place as property.
It would be difficult to argue that smoking around an animal constitutes malicious and wonton cruelty, when the person themselves is also inhaling the smoke!
With children, it may be different, since a human has individual rights which can be enforced. With an animal, it is entirely possible that the owner may have been planning to euthanise that animal in a month or two anyway.
There are also medical and biological reasons why such a law is not necessary. First of all, cancer (and emphysema) in humans takes years to develop in tobacco smokers. It is likely that most animals do not live long enough to develop cancer from cigarette smoke. DNA is DNA, regardless of the animal, and many animals simply do not possess a life span long enough for carcinogenic mutations to develop into cancer. This is one of the reasons why in order to get laboratory animals to develop cancer, chemicals must be administered in doses far more concentrated than would be seen in humans, to compensate for the short life span.
All in all, it sounds like a completely unenforceable and somewhat silly law.
Is smoking ciggerettes around my dog bad for my dog’s lungs?
I smoke ciggerttes and someone brought up an interesting topic about smoking around pets, and i would like to know if it will harm my baby.
Well, since a pet’s lifespan is about 10-15 years, I think smoking will have more lasting damage to your own lungs!
I know someone who had to have a lung removed from lung cancer. He just kind of went downhill from there, even though they got all the cancer.
And yes, I’m sure second hand smoke for a dog is still very bad. They can get cancer too.
If you won’t stop smoking for yourself, at least give up the cigs for your dog. And you will have more money to spend on dog toys!
How many people if they smoke, smoke around their pets?
I am a smoker and yes, I know it is bad for. I am just curious if people go outside or smoke in the house.
And if you have company that smokes, do you allow them to smoke around our pets?
I never smoke in the house, always go outside.
I think it’s horrible to smoke around pets. They have the right to clean air just as much as anyone. If I have company that smokes, they better not dare light a cigarette in my house or I will rip them a new @$$hole.