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Can secondhand smoke cause cancer in cats and dogs?  

Unfortunately, this is a complicated question, and there is rarely a single cause of cancer. Although it is difficult to establish a clear cause and effect between something such as secondhand smoke and cancer in pets, the evidence for environmental factors being involved is mounting in veterinary medicine.

One study revealed only a slight increase in the development of lung cancer in dogs living with a smoker, and this risk did not increase with greater secondhand smoke exposure. There is actually more evidence linking secondhand smoke with other types of cancers in pets. Cats living in a household with a smoker have been shown to have an increased risk of developing both lymphoma and cancer of the mouth (squamous cell carcinoma). Regarding lymphoma, the risk became even greater with increased time and amount of exposure to the smoke.

It is suspected that cats are at greater risk of problems from secondhand smoke because the smoke settles on their fur which is then ingested during their fastidious grooming habits. This results in ingestion of the carcinogens with high concentrations in the oral cavity.

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Teens Exposed to Less Secondhand Smoke in Cars 

Secondhand smoke exposure in cars declined among U.S. middle and high school students between 2000 and 2009.

The number of young people who reported riding in a car with someone who was smoking cigarettes "within the past seven days" during the study period fell from about 48% to nearly 30% over a 10-year period, a new study shows.

This downward trend in secondhand smoke exposure was seen across all ages of middle and high school students, genders, and ethnic groups.

During this stretch of time, the number of teens who were nonsmokers rose. Kids who said they had not had a cigarette within the last 30 days went from a low of about 80% in 2000 to a high of about 88% in 2009.

For the study, published online in the journal Pediatrics, researchers analyzed data collected for the National Youth Tobacco Survey. American students in grades six through 12 from public, private, and Catholic schools across the country completed the survey five different times during a 10-year span. Between 18,000 and 27,000 students participated.

The researchers admit that considerable progress has been made over the last decade in reducing students� exposure to secondhand smoke while in cars. Still, they found that nearly 23% of nonsmoking students had breathed in secondhand smoke in motor vehicles in the week leading up to the survey.

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LETTER: YOUR VIEW: Secondhand smoke forces writer to live as a recluse 

I would like to commend and thank Birmingham City Councilman Johnathan Austin for his stand on smoking. He is speaking for those who cannot speak for themselves -- children, the elderly, the debilitated.

To the writer of a Jan. 27 letter ("Smoking: No need to ban on private property," Your Views), I disagree with the statement that 75 percent of people don't smoke. For five years, I have not been able to go to my grandson's athletic events because of smokers.

I have never smoked, but I have severe asthma and pulmonary disease. My dad was a chain smoker. Cigarette smoke brings on asthma attacks. . . .

The writer says there's no proof secondhand smoke is harmful. Smokers, get your heads out of the sand and quit living in denial. You are killing your children, your family members and friends.

I am forced to be a recluse because of smokers. I am angry and bitter.

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• Bobbie DeRamus recalls helping to pass first indoor smoking ban 

Bobbie DeRamus doesn't remember things as well as she did. She's been diagnosed as being in the early stage of Alzheimer's disease, a neurological disorder devastating to short-term memory. So she thinks about the distant past. One memory that keeps coming back is when she spoke up for a ban on indoor smoking.

DeRamus, 86, of Roseburg suffered severely from the secondhand cigarette smoke she inhaled at work in the 1970s and '80s. She testified several times in front of a state Senate committee when legislators were considering what became the Oregon Indoor Clean Air Act.

The ban on indoor smoking in public buildings except in designated areas went into effect in 1983, the same year DeRamus left her job as a bookkeeper for Children's Services Division in Roseburg due to the damage secondhand smoke had done to her body.

The ban provoked strong feelings. In a Gallup poll in 1983, 55 percent of smokers agreed they should refrain from smoking around nonsmokers. But 39 percent disagreed, and about 30 percent did not believe that secondhand smoke was hazardous to nonsmokers.

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Less Smoke Exposure in Teens' Cars 

Action Points

Explain that fewer teens are inhaling secondhand smoke in cars, as efforts continue to limit youth exposure to the potential harms of tobacco.

Point out that despite this improvement, just over one-fifth of nonsmoking students reported secondhand smoke exposure in a car in the previous seven days.

Fewer teens are inhaling secondhand smoke in cars, as efforts continue to limit youth exposure to the potential harms of tobacco, a nationwide survey found.

From 2000 to 2009, the number of adolescents overall who reported riding in cars with someone smoking fell from 48.1% to 29.8% (P<0.001 for trend), according to Brian A. King, PhD, and colleagues from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

And during that time, the percentage of nonsmoking teens exposed to secondhand smoke in cars decreased from 39% to 22.8%, which was a 71.1% change, the researchers reported online ahead of print in the March issue of Pediatrics.

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Fewer Teens Exposed to Tobacco Smoke in Cars: Report 

Although fewer kids are being exposed to smoking while riding in cars, more than 20 percent of nonsmoking teens still are, U.S. health officials report.

Secondhand smoke can be particularly intense in a closed space, such as inside a car, and poses a significant health risk, the researchers noted.

"There have been marked decreases in exposure to smoking in cars," said report author Brian King, an epidemic intelligence service officer in the Office on Smoking and Health at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "That decrease occurred whether they were nonsmokers or smokers," he noted.

"But what is alarming is that, despite that decrease, we are still seeing large levels of exposure, particularly among nonsmokers," King said. "One in five nonsmokers is still exposed to secondhand smoke in that environment."

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Children and Secondhand Smoke Exposure-Excerpts from The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke: A Report of the Surgeon General, 2007 

Fact Sheets:

Children are Hurt by Secondhand Smoke

How to Protect Yourself and Your Loved Ones from Secondhand Smoke

Secondhand Smoke Exposure in the Home

2006 Surgeon General's Report on The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke

Secondhand Smoke: What It Means To You (PDF) - This booklet explains the report and how individuals can take action to improve their health. [11.6 MB] (En Español) [PDF 1.1 MB]

Related Information on Secondhand Smoke

Environmental Protection Agency (Smoke-free Homes and Cars Program)

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Secondhand Smoke 

* How We Can Protect Our Children from Secondhand Smoke Brochures that focuses on protecting children from secondhand smoke exposure.

* Sabemos English/Spanish language kit that addresses secondhand smoke exposure.

Related Materials

* October 2009 Institute of Medicine Report: Secondhand Smoke Exposure and Cardiovascular Effects: Making Sense of the Evidence

* Cardiovascular Effects of Secondhand Smoke Exposure (You will need to download the free Flash Player from http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/)

Fact Sheets

* Secondhand Smoke

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Secondhand Smoke Exposure in Cars Among Middle and High School Students—United States, 2000–2009 

OBJECTIVE: Exposure to secondhand smoke (SHS) from cigarettes poses a significant health risk to nonsmokers. Among youth, the home is the primary source of SHS. However, little is known about youth exposure to SHS in other nonpublic areas, particularly motor vehicles.

METHODS: Data were obtained from the 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, and 2009 waves of the National Youth Tobacco Survey, a nationally representative survey of US students in grades 6 to 12. Trends in SHS exposure in a car were assessed across survey years by school level, gender, and race/ethnicity by using binary logistic regression.

RESULTS: From 2000 to 2009, the prevalence of SHS exposure in cars declined significantly among both nonsmokers (39.0%–22.8%; trend P < .001) and smokers (82.3%–75.3%; trend P < .001). Among nonsmokers, this decline occurred across all school level, gender, and race/ethnicity subgroups.

CONCLUSIONS: SHS exposure in cars decreased significantly among US middle and high school students from 2000 to 2009. Nevertheless, in 2009, over one-fifth of nonsmoking students were exposed to SHS in cars. Jurisdictions should expand comprehensive smoke-free policies that prohibit smoking in worksites and public places to also prohibit smoking in motor vehicles occupied by youth.

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Many kids still exposed to secondhand smoke in cars 

A new government study reports that while fewer kids and teens are getting exposed to secondhand smoke while riding in the car, rates of exposure are still high enough to warrant concern.

The authors recommend that more parts of the country ban smoking in cars carrying kids -- laws that are on the books in four states.

In a survey of middle and high school students, close to one-third said they'd driven in a car with someone who was smoking in the past week.

Researchers said parents and other drivers may not realize that even when the windows are down, smoking in a vehicle can create toxic levels of circulating smoke.

"The concentrations just get very high -- they get as high as in a very, very smoky bar," said Dr. Ana Navas-Acien, who has studied secondhand smoke in cars at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore.

"It's important for children, definitely, but it's a problem for everybody," Navas-Acien, who wasn't involved in the new study, told Reuters Health.

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Welsh Government launches shock advertising campaign to stop parents smoking in cars with children  

A HIGH-PROFILE campaign to encourage adults not to smoke in cars when children are present will be launched today in Wales.

It could be followed by a ban on smoking in cars if it fails to reduce children's exposure to second-hand smoke within three years.

Figures suggest one in five schoolchildren aged 11 to 16 say they were exposed to tobacco smoke the last time they travelled in a car.

Funded by the Welsh Government, the campaign will ask parents to pledge not to smoke in their cars when their children are present.

It follows a glut of evidence revealing the level of secondhand smoke in the confined space of a car can be extremely high.

Launching Fresh Start Wales today, Wales' chief medical officer Dr Tony Jewell, said: "Children are particularly at risk from second-hand smoke, especially in vehicles where a confined space means there is no respite from the harm of the toxic chemicals in cigarettes.

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• Too many kids breathe others' smoke in cars: CDC  

In the first national estimate of its kind, a report from government researchers says more than 1 in 5 high school students and middle schoolers ride in cars while others are smoking.

This kind of secondhand smoke exposure has been linked with breathing problems and allergy symptoms, and more restrictions are needed to prevent it, the report says.

With widespread crackdowns on smoking in public, private places -- including homes and cars -- are where people encounter secondhand smoke these days. Anti-smoking advocates have zeroed in on cars because of research showing they're potentially more dangerous than smoke-filled bars and other less confined areas.

The research, from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was released online Monday in Pediatrics.

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Rapid urbanization as well as cultural habits explain Gulf states' rise in heart disease prevalence 

While the rapid improvement in socio-economic conditions is thought responsible for the high rates of cardiovascular disease in the Gulf states, deep-rooted cultural factors also play a part. "We're sitting on a time bomb," says Professor Hani Najm, Vice-President of the Saudi Heart Association, whose annual conference begins Friday 27 January. "We will see a lot of heart disease over the next 15 to 20 years. Already, services are saturated. We now have to direct our resources to the primary prevention of risk factors throughout the entire Middle East." . . .

And now there is further evidence that the cultural heritage of the Middle East may present yet another growing risk factor in the region's battle against heart disease. The waterpipe - also know as the hookah or shisha - is now said to be used by up to 34% of Middle Eastern adolescents. Despite a perception that the risk of the waterpipe may be less than those of cigarettes, a recent report suggests that its "harmful effects are similar to those of cigarettes", and that the waterpipe may offer "a bridge" to cigarette smoking.(1) The greatest prevalence of use - with up to 34% reported - is currently among adolescents and women.

A recent study from the Gulf Registry of Acute Coronary Events (GRACE), the region's largest, found that 38% of patients registered were cigarette smokers and 4.4% waterpipe smokers.(2) The study, which included 6,701 consecutive acute coronary patients in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen, found that the waterpipe smokers were older than the cigarette smokers and more likely to be female.

However, despite the relatively low rate of waterpipe smoking among the patients in this registry study, other studies report more widespread use throughout the region, and especially among the younger age groups. A study from 2004 found that 22% of men in two villages of Egypt reported current or past use of waterpipes, and the habit is increasingly evident even among student communities in the USA, Canada and Germany.

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• Alexandrians are breathing easier, air-quality study confirms 

The ban on smoking in bars and gaming establishments in Alexandria has made an immediate impact on air quality in those venues, a study released on Wednesday shows.

The Louisiana Campaign for Tobacco-Free Living released the results of a study of air quality levels at 12 city bars on Jan. 6. The Alexandria City Council voted last year to ban smoking in all city bars and gaming establishments effective Jan. 1.

The data collected in the study was analyzed by the LSU Health Sciences Center's School of Public Health in New Orleans. The study showed that air inside the facilities is now 36 times cleaner and has seen a reduction of 97 percent of the particulate matters in the air.

Dr. Daniel Harrington, an occupational health and air quality professor at LSU Health Sciences Center's School of Public Health in New Orleans, said a study of smoking bars in Alexandria before the ban showed that air quality levels were nearly double what the Environmental Protection Agency considers "hazardous" levels.

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Does second-hand smoke affect dog, cat health?  

Q. Are the effects of second-hand cigarette smoke as harmful to cats and dogs as they are to humans? I have never seen this discussed anywhere?

This is a variation of one of the most commonly asked questions by pet owners once they are given a diagnosis of cancer in their family pet: How did this happen? Unfortunately, this is a complicated question and there is rarely a single cause of cancer. Although it is difficult to establish a clear cause and effect between something such as second-hand smoke and cancer in pets, the evidence for environmental factors being involved is mounting in veterinary medicine. . . .

Despite all of these reports of possible environmental causes of cancer in pets, there have been no definitively proven links. Cancer takes time to develop; often extended periods of exposure to a carcinogen are needed in order for the damage to be done that can ultimately result in cancer. This means that pets may be less affected by these situations compared with humans who can potentially have decades of exposure to second-hand smoke and other dangerous substances.

However, it does make sense for pet owners to take any precautions possible to try to limit their four-legged family members' exposure to potential carcinogens. This preventative strategy combined with regular examinations by your veterinarian is the best way to try to ensure your pets stay healthy.

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