And a further one in ten said that this would make them ask smokers they lived with stop. The study was published online in the BMJ journal Tobacco Control.
Researchers from the Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention in Detroit carried out an online survey of 3293 adult pet owners in the state of Michigan. They asked about their smoking status, whether or not people living with them smoked, whether or not they allowed smoking in the home and whether or not knowing that smoking would affect the health of their pets would influence their smoking habits.
Of the respondents, 21% were smokers, 27% lived with at least one other person who smoked and 28% said that knowing that second hand smoking would harm their pets would make them stop.
The authors concluded that educational campaigns specifically aimed at pet owners should focus on the harmful effects of second hand smoke on their animals.
