Community | February 09, 2009 | 27 comments

28% of smokers would quit to spare pets from harm

source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29108728/

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AwesomeJosh

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29108728/

People unwilling to quit smoking to improve their own health may consider giving up cigarettes to spare their pets the harmful effects of secondhand smoke, U.S. researchers said on Monday.

Twenty-eight percent of pet owners who smoke said in a survey they would try to quit based on knowledge that secondhand smoke could harm their dogs, cats and other pets, the researchers wrote in the journal Tobacco Control.

Another 11 percent said they would think about quitting.

"It's not necessarily that people love their pets more than they love themselves or their children, it's just another motivational factor for people to consider quitting smoking," Sharon Milberger of the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, who led the research, said in a telephone interview.

Milberger said asking smokers to quit for the sake of their pets may be an appealing new way to get them to throw away their cigarettes. Of the 71 million pet owners in the United States, about a fifth are smokers, Milberger estimated.

Just under 20 percent of Americans smoke, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Just as secondhand smoke can harm people, studies indicate it can raise a pet's risk of lung cancer and other forms of cancer, allergies, eye and skin diseases and respiratory problems, the researchers said.

The findings were based on a Web-based survey of 3,293 U.S. pet owners, mostly from Michigan.

Among the nonsmokers who owned pets and lived with someone who did smoke, 16 percent said they would ask that person to quit and 24 percent said they would tell the smoker to light up outside instead of indoors, the study found.

"It would be hard to believe that there's any smoker out there now who doesn't know that smoking is bad for them and the people around them," Milberger said.

"For tobacco control advocates, on our team we can now have vets and kennels and pet supply stores. So, for example, when someone takes Fluffy in to the vet, the vet can ask them about their smoking behavior and whether they allow smoking in their home," added Milberger, a nonsmoker with a 1-year-old cat...
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27 comments // 28% of smokers would quit to spare pets from harm

  • bigloutech
  • damnneargenius
    • 0
      damnneargenius  

    • Meow...cough, cough...meow.

      Now, if only that 28% actually had the wherewithal to DO IT.

      I have observed that what people say they want to do and be and what they are capable of doing can vary widely.

    • 4 years ago
  • mario_a
    • 0
      mario_a  

    • @AwesomeJosh -- great story, and congrats on being featured! I hope you don't mind, but I needed to edit your headline because it was getting cut off in the featured module.

      Here is your original headline:

      "28% of smokers say they would quit if secondhand smoke hurts animals"

      I hope you don't mind the change. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions.

      mario

    • 4 years ago
  • Ares
    • 0
      Ares  

    • I smoke cigarettes regularly, and love it. I don't care what laws they pass restricting tobacco use, I don't care if it's bad for people standing around me, never mind an animal. Second hand smoke has been proven and disproven many times to be linked to any harmful effects.

      Bottom line, if you don't like it, go somewhere else. Same goes for animals. I don't see my dog licking 9 volt batteries anymore, because he knows it shocks him. Guess what, if an animal is exposed to something they don't like, they go somewhere else.

    • 4 years ago
  • poptart_invasion
    • 0
      poptart_invasion  

    • second-hand smoke harms lungs.
      dogs have lungs.
      ......................HEEEEY, WAAAAAIT!!!! does that mean its hurts our pets too! DUN, DUN, DUHHHHN!!
      im shocked these geniuses can even hold the drool in their mouths.

    • 4 years ago
  • cooldude360
    • 0
      cooldude360  

    • I agree slarabee, it seems to be the "in thing" just to blame every one of humanities health woes on the new scapegoat, smoking.. it is sick... we comply and go into the littlest room at restaurants because thats where u CAN smoke, yet i may have even bought my smokes right there! Then there's the ban on advertising (im from South Africa) yet many many more innocents are killed every day by drunken drivers and alcohol advertisers still have carte blanche on where and how to advertise their wares... whats good for the goose, should have been good for the gander... smoking is the one vice that i possess, and we're victimised and ostracised for it... i would think smoking calms an individual...
      lest the the truth be told: How many of you DONT light up after sex???

    • 4 years ago
  • liveroadkill
    • 0
      liveroadkill  

    • This is stupid. why would you quit smoking because of your pet? smoke goes up. not down. unless your pet is taller than you it will be fine.

    • 4 years ago
  • BFAM_RVS
    • 0
      BFAM_RVS  

    • I am not so sure that smokers will stop, but even if they slow down with their smoking and smoke less, there health will be better along with that of their animals and smoking less means less money spent on cigs, so that is a good thing to....

    • 4 years ago
  • GuaranteeVictory
    • 0
      GuaranteeVictory  

    • Humanity is so screwed that MOST yes i said it, MOST people today care for a DOG is a DOG! more than human. What are they thinking? I really dont understand.

    • 4 years ago
  • Raveway
  • barkway
    • 0
      barkway  

    • Great...so now Fido's symptoms of illness (whatever the condition) will ALL be blamed on a smoking owner or housemate just as human doctors now blame every conceivable condition on smoking (causing many people to stop seeking medical treatment for anything because they know that no matter what ails them, it will be blamed on smoking).

    • 4 years ago
  • dmass5
    • 0
      dmass5  

    • im not going to lie, i do not smoke and i hate doing it, but when ur done getting shot at, lighting one up is the best feeling ever.

      but smoking anything is bad for you.

    • 4 years ago
  • cooldude360
    • 0
      cooldude360  

    • These stats do nothing, alot of people who take these surveys say what they think the interviewer wants them to say...

      And i have also read that:

      68.73 % of all statistics are made up on the spot!!

    • 4 years ago
  • sinewofcrab
    • 0
      sinewofcrab  

    • My cat died from Squamous Cell Carcinoma back in June. SCC includes malignant tumors that can occur on the face or on body organs. I read that the environmental causes for this cancer include excessive exposure to sunlight. My cat did often lay in the grass or garden catching rays. Another potential cause for this cancer is secondhand tobacco smoke. There was a lot of smoking going on on my back deck over the years.

    • 4 years ago
  • barkway
  • foebea
    • 0
      foebea  

    • Also in the news, 21% of 3900 people in michigan are idiots.

      Why do they keep feeding us these useless surveys? 100% of people in my apartment think these survey results are propaganda.

    • 4 years ago
  • SHAWN_RITTIMAN
  • Gargaryun
  • SHAWN_RITTIMAN
  • 2muchinfo
  • benzodiazepine
  • GatorMonkey
  • Jonathonish
  • cerealforeal
    • 0
      cerealforeal  

    • So what if they say they will? You really think they will?

      Most corporations say they will switch banks if the interests rates were .25% lower at another bank. Guess what? Those options are available to those same companies, have been, but they haven't switched.

      People can talk all they want, won't change shit.

    • 4 years ago
  • GatorMonkey
    • 0
      GatorMonkey  
    • cerealforeal:

      I quit - both for my own health and those around me. I quit because I didn't want my stuff smelling like ciggs anymore - I didn't want my pet around it because a human can walk away, my dog had to be around me.

      Bear in mind, quitting smoking is one of the hardest things you can try to do and unless you were a smoker you have no idea. It's an addiction and one that is with you forever. You want to quit, you can't touch it again. You smoke ONE ciggy after you quit and you havea 75-85% chance of becoming a full blown smoker again.

      It's not that most smokers dont want to quit, its that they have trouble doing it. Ask a lot of smokers - they dont even enjoy it after a certain point. There were tons of days where I was like ugh, why am I doing this... Im not even enjoyingi t... and yet.... 4 hours later I was lighting another one up.

      Its not easy. Its been a month for me and there are stil times of the day where all i can think aout is a smoke break. It sucks.

    • 4 years ago
  • galwayman
    • 0
      galwayman  

    • I don't smoke in my house when I have a pet my 14 year old recently passed away and I'll adopt another soon! When my children were small I didn't smoke around them either i'd go outside!

    • 4 years ago
  • Swiyyah
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