The new year brought a new ban on smoking in public places in Oregon and, along with that ban, comes increased conversation about the perils of secondhand cigarette smoke.  Many veterinarians are describing how ailing pets have regained their health when their people have stopped smoking in their homes.

From birds to ferrets to cats and dogs, animals suffer the health-damaging effects of exposure to cigarette smoke just as people do although each species seems to be affected in different ways.  For example:

• Cats who live with smokers are two to four times more likely to develop intestinal lymphoma than cats of nonsmokers.  Kristi Ellis, an Oregon Humane Society veterinarian, says cats often die within a year after diagnosis of this form of lymphoma and says the reason cats develop bowel cancers instead of lung cancers when living with cigarette smoke may be because of their meticulous grooming habits.  As the toxic smoke particles settle on the cat’s fur, the cat ingests it during grooming.
• Cats also suffer asthma more often in the home of a smoker and Ellis has seen asthmatic cats’ health improve dramatically and without need of medication when their owners limit smoking to outside only or kick the habit entirely.
• Small dogs, who typically spend more time in close contact with their people than larger dogs do, have a tendency to develop respiratory diseases in the homes of smokers.  Some dog breeds, especially the small ones, come with a predisposition to respiratory ills anyway but the likelihood of getting sick is greater when they live with cigarette smoke.
• Larger dogs are less inclined to respiratory diseases but their risk of developing cancer is greater when living with a smoker.  Dogs with long noses tend to develop nasal cancer while short-nosed dogs are more likely to develop lung cancer.
• Nancy Zimmerman, another Oregon veterinarian, once treated a dachshund with chronic ear infections.  Medication and nutritional supplements produced poor results but the dog’s ear problems cleared up quickly once Zimmerman suggested the dachshund’s owners stop smoking indoors.
• Melinda Surrency, a veterinarian who specializes in exotic animals at the Southwest Animal Hospital in Beaverton, said ferrets are more prone to colds and other upper respiratory infections when their owners smoke.  She says small animals with high metabolic rates, such as hamsters and guinea pigs, are at greater risk of smoke-induced ailments, too.
• Birds can’t filter the air they breathe very effectively, making them particularly vulnerable to smoke-related health issues.  Marli Lintner, of Lake Oswego’s Avian Medical Center, says the clinic treats many birds with recurring secondary infections that are more common in the homes of smokers.  Birds who live with smokers are more likely to develop pneumonia and sinus infections, too.  Cigarette smoke collects in birds’ lungs because birds don’t have diaphragms and therefore cannot cough up the smoke they inhale.  Once their lungs become blackened by secondhand smoke, the lungs stay blackened forever.

Bans on smoking in public places are gaining in popularity in the industrialized world.  One of the benefits noted after these bans have been in place for a while is that people eventually begin to smoke less individually than before the ban.  Another benefit is that fewer younger people take up the habit.  Both factors benefit the smoker and the people sharing a home with them.

Veterinary research is now showing that pets, too, benefit when smoking is restricted or not allowed in their homes.