Cats Herd You

Are you one of the nearly half of Americans who make New Year’s resolutions? The good intentions that we make those New Year’s Resolutions with can fall by the wayside as days past January 1 tick by, but if you resolved to quit smoking, there’s news that might help you stick to that resolution: It’s not just healthier for you. It’s also healthier for your cat.

A study underway at the University of Glasgow shows a direct link between cats living in an environment where they are exposed to smoke. This includes a higher risk of health problems including cancers, cell damage and weight gain.

The risk of cancer in cats was already established in a previous study. Now Clare Kottenbelt, professor of Small Animal Medicine and Oncology at the University of Glasgow Small Animal Hospital has previewed the ongoing study, saying, “Our findings show that exposure to smoke in the home is having direct impact on pets. It risks ongoing cell damage, increasing weight gain after castration and has previously been shown to increase the risk of certain cancers.”

This new study shows that cats are affected more than dogs in a smoking environment, probably because of the amount of self-grooming cats do. Previous research has shown that a cat living in a smoking household has 14-15 cigarette’s worth of toxins in his fur. That’s a lot of toxic fur to keep tidy during grooming sessions!

The ASPCA recommends that smokers “take it outside” to smoke so that a large share of the smoke particles remain outside and don’t impact your outdoor cat. But data being collected during this new study makes that approach look less effective than previously thought. Reducing the number of tobacco products smoked in the home to less than 10 a day does help the nicotine levels in a cat’s hair to drop significantly, but the levels are still higher than in cats in non-smoking homes. According to Victoria Smith MRCVS, “Owners who consistently smoked away from the cat did not protect their cat from exposure but did reduce the amount of smoke that was taken into the body.” She also said, “Even having outdoor access makes very little difference.”

The best solution is to stick with that New Year’s resolution and kick the smoking habit. If you can’t do it for yourself, maybe you can for your four-footed friend who can’t make that choice for himself.

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Research and further reading:

Statistc Brain, New Year’s Resolution Statistics
Medical Xpress, Quit Smoking for the Sake of Your Pets
Dr. Kate Hodgson, Pets in the Family: Impact on Human Health – Zooeyia

Creative Commons photos courtesy:

Igor Vtornick on flickr
Quit Tobacco on flickr