Young people don't want to smoke which is great for the domestic cat

The young people of Britain, today, are 50% as likely to smoke as their parents were at the same age according to figures released recently.

I've mentioned it before because it is something which is not often mentioned; the passive smoking of domestic cats. A lot has been spoken about human passive smoking but we must think of the animals both cats and dogs who in a home occupied by a persistent smoker will be passive smoking themselves most of the time.

Passive smoking is a known risk factor for several types of cancer including throat cancer and lung cancer. The International Agency for Research on Cancer is classified second-hand smoke as a group 1 carcinogen. This means that it is carcinogenic to humans AND companion animals (I have added the animals into this statement because they must also suffer from this carcinogenic substance in the atmosphere inside the home). 

Full-time indoor cats are particularly vulnerable as they are exposed to these carcinogens long-term. It needs to be added, too, that cigarette smoke can linger on furniture and other surfaces. The smoke particles can settle on furniture and carpets and floors. This is where domestic cat sit, and sleep and snooze. It will get on to their coat and then they will lick the carcinogenic substances off their coat and ingest them when they groom themselves.

In the news today, in The Times, it is reported that young people are already shunning cigarettes in the UK. And this might apply similarly in other countries particularly developed countries. That's why the tobacco manufacturers are targeting developing countries to maintain their businesses. It is shameful.

But in Britain, there will be a ban on young people smoking cigarettes as promised by the UK government.

But at the moment, only 13% of people aged to 16-24 smoke cigarettes. This compares very favourably with 34% of young people of that age who smoked in the mid-1990s. And compared to their grandparents, the smoking rates are less than one third.

Before cancer was linked to smoking, pre-1950s, 60% of men and 42% of women smoked. Since then, the numbers have gradually fallen to 13% of men and 10% of women in 2022.

RELATED: Dangers to cats.

Source: Twitter. Sunak's feed.

The government will set out legislation to bring the rate of smoking by young people to zero. Smoking is still the number one cause of cancer in the UK.

We don't know how many domestic cats and dogs developed illnesses because of passive smoking. Nobody keeps those records. When these companion animals develop an illness, the cause of which cannot be identified, it is called idiopathic.

It is my contention that in many instances these idiopathic illnesses are generated through inhospitable elements in the environment in which they live inside the home one of which is cigarette smoke. Other substances would be cannabis smoke and chemicals used to preserve carpets or fire retardants in furniture. It's these kind of hidden causes of ill-health which I think people need to address more vigorously.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.