Smoking Linked to Cancer in Cats

Attention all smokers! Exhaled smoke or smoke from a burning cigarette contains 4000 harmful chemicals including carbon monoxide, formaldehyde and arsenic that is causing disease in our cats.

Tufts School of Veterinary Medicine undertook a 7 year investigation into the relationship between cancer (lymphoma) in cats and smoking households. They found that cats living in smoking households had twice the risk of developing lymphoma and cats in homes with >2 smokers were at 4 times the risk, than cats in smoke-free homes.

As well as cancer (lymphoma), there is evidence to suggest that cats are also at a higher risk of squamous cell carcinomas in the mouth, lung disease (asthma, pneumonia) and eye irritation in smoking households.