From:
Sukie Crandall
Date: 2002-08-06 21:41:01 UTC
Subject: second hand smoke and malignancies
To: Ferrethealth@smartgroups.com, ferret-list@cunyvm.cuny.edu
Message-Id: <p05111700b975efa916dc@[10.0.1.14]>
We have all read of other reports of animal companions of multiple
types having health problems related to second hand smoke, but here's
a report which leads me to think that it would make sense to further
track this for ferrets: in the 8/12/2002 issue of U.S. News and
World Report on page 13 there is a short article about research at
Tufts (Sorry, missed writing down the primary researcher's name when
I got called for my allergy shot.) stating that in cats they have
found more than twice the rate of lymphoma if the cats lived in
places where they were exposed to second-hand smoke.
Certainly, from research at MIT we know that there are extremely
strong indications that lympho in ferrets can have a viral trigger
and that this goes a long way to explain at least some clumps, but it
would be interesting to know if second-hand smoke may increase the
risk for ferrets, too, and if the two may act together to have
additive or even multiplicative effects.
Ferrets tend to be indoor companions more than cats or dogs as well,
so the effect could easily be increased by that concentration, and by
being animals who require a great deal of energy despite having small
lungs -- so many, many breaths required compared to larger or less
energetic animals.
Seems like something that vets could track though some smokers may be
defensive about it... (Kind of used to that response -- which makes
me even more angry at tobacco companies -- given that my mother died
of a smoking related malignancy and my sister and some other
relatives either are or were smokers.)