Not only are humans beset by the effects of secondhand smoke, it’s also no walkover for dogs to be forced into a stuffy room with chain-smoking owners. Because even dogs suffer the harmful effects of secondhand smoke: a research by the University of Milan has established it, recently published in Mdpi and coordinated by Deborah Groppettiprofessor of obstetrics and veterinary gynecology at the Department of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Sciences.
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Shared spaces and damage
The dog is a very common pet which, sharing spaces, habits and food with man, could be exposed to the same risks and environmental diseases. Over the past two decades, the harmful effects of secondhand smoke exposure on children and adults have been widely discussed and highlighted through public health campaigns, but little emphasis has been placed on the risks pets may face.
“Until now, it had not yet been shown in dogs that cohabitation with smoking owners induces the presence of cotinine, the main endogenous metabolite of nicotine, in the body of these animals – he explains Silvia Mazzola, professor of Veterinary Physiology in the same Department and co-author of the study -. As for children, even for pets, exposure to smoke can occur not only through environmental inhalation, but also through transdermal absorption (ie through the skin).
The research on 32 dogs
The research included 32 (healthy) dogs of both sexes. Depending on whether or not they lived with human smokers: 16 animals were included in the group exposed to passive smoke, the remaining 16 instead belonged to the non-exposed. A sample of hair and blood was taken from all of them, necessary as part of routine checks: part of the serum was used to analyze the possible presence of cotinine through the Elisa method, a test based on the use of a linked enzyme to an antibody to detect and quantify the presence of a specific antigen in a biological sample. And the results showed an increase in cotinine in the serum and in the hair of dogs in direct contact with smoke.
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“Let’s sensitize the owners”
“Making smoker pet owners aware of the potential damage that secondhand smoke could cause to their pet dogs is not a negligible factor, not only in terms of preventing smoking-related diseases, but also in terms of protecting animal welfare – concludes Mazzola – . Furthermore, the published results represent the first part of a larger study, of which we are processing other results right now, a study aimed at evaluating the possible effects of exposure to secondhand smoke on canine reproduction “.