Articles
From the December 2005 Aberdeen Area Chamber of Commerce Progress newsletter.
What is it Lassie? You have lung cancer?
By: Ashley Seeklander
Smokers: Lighting up a cigarette in your home sounds like no big deal, right? It should be if you are also a pet owner. Pets, like people, can get cancer from secondhand smoke. Two separate studies, one completed by Colorado State University and the other by Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine and University of Massachusetts, both found when dogs and cats, respectively, are exposed to secondhand smoke their chances of being diagnosed with cancer increases. Tufts University primarily looked at the significance between lymphoma, a common cancer in felines, and smoking. Their findings concluded that the risk of lymphoma is two-and-a-half times as high in cats if their owners are smokers. The higher the quantity of smoke and longer amount of time the cat was exposed to secondhand smoke the greater the risk. After the cat had been exposed to secondhand smoke for more than five years the risk nearly tripled. If there are two smokers in the household the risk quadrupled.
Based on the findings of this study University of Massachusetts, epidemiologists, a branch of medicine that studies the causes of diseases in a population, believe this study brings forth compelling evidence about non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in humans. There are some striking resemblances to this human cancer to lymphoma found in cats. In 1990, Colorado State University did their own study, but it was focused on canines not cats. Their findings revealed dogs that are exposed to secondhand smoke are 1.6 times more likely to develop lung cancer than dogs that have not been exposed. Humans are not the only ones being affected by secondhand smoke. We are, however, the only ones who are capable of putting a stop to it. Next time you light up, think of that waging tail or the sound of soft purring and put out your cigarette. If you can’t quit for your health, do it for Lassie!
References:
Lechler, Linda. “Pets and secondhand smoke.” Colorado State Collegian. March 18, 2003.
O’Rourke, Kate. “Lymphoma risk in cats MORE THAN DOUBLES if owners are smokers.”
Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association. November 01, 2002. http://www.avma.org/onlnews/javma/nov02/021101l.asp
