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Passive smoking may be as bad for pet cats as it is for humans, researchers have discovered.
"Cats
that live with cigarette smokers are twice as likely to develop feline
lymphoma," says Antony Moore of Tufts University. Feline lymphoma is a
deadly cancer of the blood and immune system.
"It
was believed that the major cause of feline lymphoma was feline
leukaemia virus," he says. "But the results of our study clearly
indicate that exposure to environmental factors such as second-hand
tobacco smoke has devastating consequences for cats."
Cats
could be peculiarly sensitive to passive smoking but a more likely
explanation, says Moore, is the increasingly sedentary lifestyle of the
average house cat. The modern cat tends to spend most of the day
sleeping indoors and constantly re-breathes the same stale tobacco
smoke. They also swallow relatively large quantities of contaminated
dust, soot and ash when they groom themselves.
Children at risk
Moore's
team studied 180 cats treated at a Tufts veterinary hospital between
1993 and 2000. They found that, adjusting for age and other factors,
cats exposed to second-hand smoke had more than double the risk of
acquiring the disease. In households where they were exposed to smoke
for five years or more, cats tripled their risk. And cats living with
two smoking owners had four times the cancer risk.
Chris
Laurence, chief vet at the UK's RSPCA, says: "Lymphoma is far and away
the commonest tumour in cats so this is a very important finding."
The
researchers say that their work could also have implications for human
health. Young children are likely to be exposed to similar passive
smoking dangers as cats. They too spend much of the day indoors and
swallow large amounts of dust and dirt when they "mouth" objects.
In
particular, the research may shed light on the causes of non-Hodgkins
lymphoma in humans, says Elizabeth Bertone, Moore's colleague.
Non-Hodgkins lymphoma is very similar to feline lymphoma and its causes
are largely unknown.
Diseases of affluence
Pets
are increasingly suffering from the same diseases of affluence as their
western owners, such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes.
As
well as passive smoking, rich diets, lack of exercise and increasingly
good veterinary care that allows them to stagger into old age are all
thought to be major factors.
Elizabeth
Bertone says: "If owners fed their animals better food and took them
for the occasional walk then it might do them and their pets some
good."
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