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One of this year's top comedy's finally has a pet -- and boy, does she have troubles.
ABC's Middle (Wednesday nights at 8:30 ET) has introduced a Basset Hound who developed emphysema after years of living with two chain-smoking elderly aunts.
Frankie, the mom stuck in the "middle" of all the family disasters, takes Doris to her house for a smoke-free environment. Then what? Watch and find out.
Meanwhile, we checked to see if there have been studies done to determine if and how secondhand smoke harms cats and dogs. It doesn't take a health expert to understand the answer is yes.
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He and almost a dozen of his support personnel, investigators and deputies, along with other city and county employees, were halfway through their series of tobacco cessation classes.
And they hadn't lost that focused intensity they all brought to the initial session, either. They were still intent on solving this case of how to quit using tobacco.
After the second class, the group received their first prescription for Chantix, a prescription medication used to help people quit smoking. . . .
But just as the effects of smoking are bad on Nugent himself, the effects of his second-hand smoke (also called Environmental Tobacco Smoke or ETS) are dangerous to his family members - and that includes Amber, the Sheriff's bloodhound, if she happens to be around cigarette smoke while with Nugent. . . .
New studies are showing that pets get dosed with poisons from tobacco smoke in two ways: through second-hand smoke and by ingesting the actual smoke particles when they groom themselves, which is being labeled third-hand smoke. . . .
And the licking of things is also a heretofore undetected source of smoke carcinogens for babies, too.
An article in Pediatrics Magazine in the beginning of this year highlighted the risk to pregnant women and babies of third-hand smoke. . . .
An article published in July 2005 in the world-renowned medical journal Lancet indicated that private research conducted by the Philip Morris cigarette company in the 1980s showed that second-hand smoke was highly toxic. Yet the company suppressed the findings during the next two decades.
So the Surgeon General's report was right: there is absolutely no risk-free level of second-hand smoke exposure - to any living thing, especially children, pets and other people living with a smoker.
Insurance investigators concluded that a sparrow must have picked up a smouldering cigarette butt and deposited it among the dry twigs of its nest under the eaves.
The resulting conflagration caused £250,000 of damage at Crescent Stores in Leasingham, near Sleaford, Lincolnshire.
Initial investigations found no gas or electrical faults, but 35 cigarette ends were eventually found in various sparrows’ nests in the roof.
Mr Sheriff, 48, a non-smoker, said: ‘It’s a pity really because I like seeing birds around the place but to think one of these pesky sparrows took a cigarette end onto the roof and caused all this damage is amazing.
‘At the end of the day, what is done is done. It’s a busy shop and people jump out of their cars, drop their cigarette ends on the floor and come in to buy a packet of fags.
The American Legacy Foundation(R) is challenging pet owners to quit smoking for their pets during the month of April, which kicks off Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Month. A growing body of research shows there are no safe levels of exposure to secondhand smoke -- for humans or for animals. And one new study shows that nearly 30 percent of pet owners live with at least one smoker -- a number far too high given the consequences of exposure to secondhand smoke ("SHS").
"Secondhand smoke doesn't just affect people," said Dr. Cheryl G. Healton, DrPH, President and CEO of the American Legacy Foundation(R), the national independent public health foundation dedicated to keeping young people from smoking and providing resources to smokers who want to quit. "While most Americans have been educated about the dangers of smoking to their own bodies, it is equally important that pet owners take action to protect their beloved domestic pets from the dangers of secondhand smoke."
Much to the dismay of struggling addicts in the Wolverine State, the Michigan Tobacco Quit Line has been shut down until October 1 because it just couldn't financially keep up with the requests for nicotine replacement therapy products.
As an organization that helps people fight another addiction (meat addiction, that is) we feel the quit line's pain.
That's why, after hearing about the help line's financial woes, we wrote a letter to the director of the Department of Community Health in Michigan offering to team up and help cover the hotline's costs. Our proposal includes renaming the quit line The Cancer Prevention Hotline (because that's the point, isn't it?) and including copies of PETA's free "Vegetarian Starter Kit" along with the other distributed materials.
Are you a smoker who needs another reason to quit? Did you know that most cigarettes are tested on animals? Gross.
HOUSTON, Texas -- A family headed to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo is mourning the loss of two show sheep.
The ewes died when their trailer caught on fire near Hwy. 288 and Reed Road.
A prized ram was rescued.
The driver of the truck pulling the trailer told police he saw a passenger tossing a cigarette out of a passing 18-wheeler. A short time later, he noticed smoke pouring out of the trailer.
Smokers are more likely to quit smoking for the sake of their pets' health than they are for their own, suggests research published ahead of print in Tobacco Control.
The published evidence shows that second hand tobacco smoke can be as dangerous for pets as it is for the non-smoking partners of smokers. Exposure to it has been associated with lymph gland, nasal, and lung cancers; allergies; eye and skin diseases; as well as respiratory problems in cats and dogs.
But few smokers realise what impact their habit is having on the health of their pets, say the US researchers.
They set up an online survey for pet owners resident in south eastern Michigan, quizzing them about their and their partners' smoking behaviours, and what they knew about the effects of second hand smoke on their pets.
A LIT cigarette butt, possibly thrown from a passing car or truck, is the probable cause of the West Bendigo fire that claimed two lives and destroyed 50 homes.
The fire started about 5.30pm on Saturday in a vacant Eaglehawk block, just 1.5km from Bendigo's city centre, 150km northwest of Melbourne.
Between 6pm Saturday and early Sunday morning, residents in Maiden Gully, California Gully, Long Gully, Eaglehawk and West Bendigo were evacuated.
Fifty CFA crews took several hours to bring the blaze under control.
"People complain about the ban, but I like it," he said. "I was smoking a pack at work alone. Now I'm smoking less." And, he said, he doesn't make up for the restriction at work by smoking more at home.
So the air clears not only in bars but also in the homes where pets live.
The consequences can be significant. A study conducted about seven years ago showed that cats living with smokers are two to four times more at risk for intestinal lymphoma, said Kristi Ellis, a veterinarian at the Oregon Humane Society. This type of cancer usually kills the cat within one year of diagnosis. The reason cats end up with cancer in their bowels, not their lungs, is that smoke particles settle on their fur and are ingested when cats groom, Ellis said.
This, however, is a worst-case scenario, and some say secondhand smoke hasn't been proved to directly cause cancer in cats.
"It's important to note that there's no absolute direct link between smoking and cancer in pets," said Nancy Zimmermann, director of medical support at Banfield, the Pet Hospital, one of the world's largest veterinary practices.
Noting that health of captive animals is affected due to smoking by visitors to the zoos, a prominent animal rights group on Wednesday sought a ban on smoking in such areas as well.
The demand has come in the wake of the health ministry's notification imposing ban on smoking in the public places.
People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has written to the CZA, an autonomous government body, to implement the notification in the zoos as well, as "passive smoking is injurious to the animal's health too."
The Kruger National Park’s Managing Executive Dr Bandile Mkhize accepted a donation of 195 MaxiBin cigarette disposal bins today (Monday June 23, 2008) from British American Tobacco (BAT) South Africa.
“I would like to be first in line to thank and congratulate BAT South Africa for this marvellous initiative,” said Dr Mkhize during the hand over function at Skukuza.
Cigarette butts are a constant problem, not only because they are repulsive and can perhaps be ingested by animals, but also because of the obvious fire risk. . . .
On hearing about the challenge faced by the KNP, BAT South Africa stepped forward immediately, especially in light of its awareness about the environmental impact that its products can have if consumers do not adopt considerate smoking behaviour.
A tortoise who enjoys a good smoke has been discovered in northeast China's Jilin Province, a local newspaper reported.
The smoking tortoise is the pet of a Chinese man surnamed Yun from Yongji County. He has kept the animal as a pet for nearly four years, according to the City Evening News.
Yun, himself a smoker, one day teased the tortoise by putting a cigarette butt into its mouth. To his surprise, it smoked, the paper said. From then on, he often shared his cigarettes with his pet.
Environmental groups said smoking is generally bad for humans and the environment.
According to the Ecowaste Coalition, cigarette is not only harmful to the body's health but it is also causes damage to the environment.
The indiscriminate throwing of cigarette butts as 30 million Filipinos puff tobacco products and just throw them in places that can endanger both humans and animals.
"Butts may look small but the quantity of carelessly thrown butts in the environment can pose real toxic threats to humans and wildlife," the group said. . . .
The discarded butts also leach toxic chemicals into the water and soil as they corrode into tiny plastic powder.
These things are also carried by the wind and rain to rivers and oceans where birds and fishes mistake them for food. Littered butts contribute to sediment pollution.
Data from the Ocean Conservancy showed . . .
Ecowaste said cigarette filters could lead to digestive blockages when ingested by animals because of toxic chemicals they contain like arsenic, cadmium, and lead.
Big tobacco is pulling its money out of academic research -- kind of. Tobacco company Philip Morris told researchers in September of last year that it was ending its controversial extramural research program, Science reported today. But some funding from the company remains.
The news of the ended sponsorship spread this month when University of California President Robert Dynes noted in a February 5 letter to the UC chancellors that the tobacco company had ended its research program. . . .
Stanton Glantz, UC San Francisco professor, and outspoken supporter of the debated bans, told Science that Philip Morris recently awarded a $6 million grant to UCLA neuroscientist Edythe London.
Here's a recipe for academic controversy:
First, find dozens of hard-core teenage smokers as young as 14 and study their brains with high-tech scans. Second, feed vervet monkeys liquid nicotine and then kill at least six of them to examine their brains. Third, accept $6 million from tobacco giant Philip Morris to pay for it all. Fourth, cloak the project in unusual secrecy.
At UCLA, a team of researchers is following this formula to produce what it hopes will be a groundbreaking study of addiction. So far, the scientists have proved that the issues of animal testing and tobacco-funded research are among the most contentious on university campuses.
UCLA professor Edythe London, the lead scientist on the three-year study, said it could discover new ways to help people quit smoking and lead to innovative treatments for other addictions. . . .
"It's stunning in this day and age that a university would do secret research for the tobacco industry on the brains of children," said Matt Meyers of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids in Washington, D.C. "It raises fundamental questions about the integrity, honesty and openness of research anywhere at the University of California."
"We are doing this because we really want to save lives,"