Smoking And how this Is no good for you And your pets

We are all aware of the health hazards to our own lives of tobacco smoking, and how even passive smoking (inhalation of smoke from someone else in the same room) can be damaging to babies or children. Yet how many people realize that such tobacco smoke is even more dangerous to pet birds?

Sixty or seventy years ago almost every adult smoked cigarettes or pipes as a matter of course; it was accepted as the norm, and no health problems were imagined. However, long before that time, it was well recognized that birds were ultra-sensitive to the presence of noxious gases in the atmosphere. This fact was utilized in the employment of canaries down coal-mines, as sentinels to detect methane and carbon monoxide. These gases are potentially poisonous to humans, but long before they built up in concentrations sufficient to damage miners, the canaries would breathe in small amounts and rapidly die. Thus the mine-workers would hopefully have sufficient time to get out before they too succumbed.

This susceptibility to inhaled toxins is a consequence of the unique and efficient respiratory system of birds. Each breath of inhaled air is passed twice, through the lungs, and the gaseous exchange mechanism in the blood vessels is ultra-effective, thus, they are able to draw more oxygen out of the air (essential for their high metabolic rate) than can mammals. However, this efficiency is not confined to oxygen – any other material in the inspired air is equally effectively absorbed.

Environmental tobacco smoke or second-hand smoke exhaled from a smoker as well as the smoke released from the end of burning cigarette, pipe of cigar. It consists of more than 4,000 chemicals including carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, benzene, chromium, nickel, vinyl chloride and arsenic.

Scientific evidence carefully collected over the last 30 years shows that people repeatedly exposed to environmental tobacco smoke are more likely to develop and die from heart problems, lung cancer and breathing problems. Several studies have been done that show chronic exposure also increases the incidence of lung disease and eye irritation in our pets. Since birds have an extremely sensitive respiratory system, it makes sense that this can be particularly devastating to them.

You should be aware by now of the health risks associated with smoking. You should also know that the effects of passive smoke; inhalation of smoke from someone else in the same room; can be damaging as well. It only makes sense that the more delicate respiratory of parrots will be even more at risk in a home with a smoker. Smoking around your pets is extremely hazardous to your feathered friend and there is no doubt that the life expectancy of your parrot will be decreased if he is in close proximity to smokers.

Those impurities that permeate the air will also end up as a residual film on your feathered friends feathers. If you’ve ever been in a home with a smoker, you have probably seen "yellowish" film that can build up on things like windows or sheer curtains. That film is left on the birds feathers so when a bird preens itself, it will ingest nicotine as well as other impurities that are in the air. This ingestion of these impurities will poison the bird and in time will cause system disorders as well as digestive malfunctions.

If a smoker handles a bird with nicotine stained fingers, the chemicals on the hand get on the skin of the birds feet sometimes resulting in cases of dermatitis on the feet. Do yourself and your bird/s a favor and don’t smoke.

For birds, it is suspected that long-term exposure to secondhand smoke in poorly ventilated areas predisposes them to pneumonia and other respiratory ailments, including lung cancer. Unfortunately, many of the harmful products in smoke are in the form of gas. Therefore, environmental tobacco smoke cannot be entirely filtered out through ventilation systems or special fans. It can take many hours for the smoke of a single cigarette to clear. Keeping a bird healthy includes avoiding smoke from burnt food, burnt Teflon, house fires, as well as tobacco

Thus diverse materials such as scented candles or air-fresheners, paint fumes, decorating dust, feather dust, strong perfumes and of course overheated TEFLON fumes, will adversely affect birds. The latter particularly will kill birds within minutes.

The hobby of bird-keeping has existed for decades, thus developing alongside the smoking culture. However, while many public places (restaurants, cinemas, transport, etc) (note: most places today are non-smoking but not too long ago the previous applied) are now designated as non-smoking zones as we have become aware of the health hazards of cigarette smoke, it is still difficult o persuade visitors to bird shows that the smoke they are exhaling is potentially more damaging to the birds they have come to see than it is to themselves!

If you have ever noticed out of place things going on with your bird than try to see if smoking is a cause of it or could be a result of the atmospheric chemicals on the outside of the bird. If you have ever walked into the home of a heavy smoker, and seen the wallpaper, paintwork and net curtains stained yellow with nicotine, you will appreciate how this pollutant will also settle on the birds plumage. Pet birds living in such a home will have feathers that are dull and dark, often feeling greasy to the touch. Their normal attempts to preen and keep the feathers in good order will be in vain, and they will end up over-preening and plucking themselves in attempts to get rid of the noxious deposit. Many cases of feather plucking parrots we see are the direct result of cigarette smoking in the home.

The nicotine that is inevitably swallowed in the preening process will poison the bird, leading to digestive malfunction and nervous signs. Birds that are tame and are handled frequently by the nicotine-stained fingers of their smoking owners will not only have permanently dirty plumage, but the chemical will often act as a direct skin irritant. These birds can develop dermatitis on their legs and feet.

The second manifestation of tobacco smoking damage in birds is the internal result of the inhaled smoke and its chemical contents. The tars, nicotine, and hydrocarbons contained in the smoke will settle in the lungs and air-sacs of the bird with exactly the same effects as they do in humans. Blood pressure will rise, lungs will function with reduced efficiency, and the heart will become damaged by the toxins and the extra work it has to perform.

I decided to try and write an article on smoking as it seemed like the right thing to do as I could not find very much on the subject with concerns to our avian friends.

I approached a chat group because I wanted opinions on the good and bad of smoking around pets; their personal thoughts and their input which prompted me to give this subject that most people still do not want to talk about as they could be a smoker, previous smoker and now non-smoker. I do not want to come off judging others, just want to protect our animals and humans that breathe our air its due. I myself am a previous smoker, I have been a non-smoker for many years; however during my smoking years I never owned a bird at that time. This is now a smoke-free environment and I can notice the difference in my air that I breathe (having asthma especially makes me notice more) and things just smell different; especially clothing, furniture, curtains, etc. This is just my opinion.

TILL WE MEET AGAIN

Down Life’s Highway,

We traveled for many years,

Through Good,

Through Bad,

But always Near.

Our Time together will always be cherished,

Our lives entwined for eternity,

I’ll always watch over you

As you always watched over me,

Growing older together was not enough time.

Our love withheld time for us,

Our tears show our love,

Our heart will never still,

As we loved each other and always understood.

Our paths will always be one.

TILL WE MEET AGAIN

Linda