Pets have a level of curiosity that is usually only found in small children and dedicated whistle blowers. This means that anything you put up on a high shelf is instantly the most interesting thing in the world. If you store your different types of e-liquids up on a high shelf, to keep them away from children for example, then that means they are going to gain the attention of your pets. Does this put them at risk of harm though?
The Dangers of E-Liquid
E-Liquid itself isn’t inherently dangerous to humans. The nicotine content isn’t high enough to reach a lethal dosage in an adult human, unless you were to drink 3 or 4 bottles of a high dosage bottle of e-liquid in less than five minutes. Unfortunately, the smaller a creature is the lower its tolerance to the nicotine content of an e-liquid. This means that if your pet drinks just half a bottle of your e-liquid it can be lethal for them.
When it comes to the list of ingredients it’s only the nicotine that causes issues for pets, except for cats but we’ll come to that later, but it is possible for anyone to overdose on nicotine if they ingest enough of it. The other ingredients in e-liquid are safe for consumption, and in some cases are even used in pet foods, so won’t cause any harm to your pets. So how can you keep your pets safe?
Correct E-Liquid Storage
When it comes to keeping your pets safe it is slightly different to keeping children safe. Children aren’t as likely to climb up to high shelves to get to an e-liquid. This is usually because they can’t see it or smell it. Animals on the other hand have a much keener sense of smell than humans so the smells of some e-liquids are likely to pique their interest.
The best way to avoid this becoming an issue is to keep your e-liquid in a locked box or cupboard. That way your pets can’t get into it. It’s as simple as that. If you make it so that your e-liquid can’t be got to, your pets will be safe. It’s exactly the same principle behind the storage of harmful chemicals like bleach.
Nicotine Free E-Liquid
If you use nicotine free e-liquids then the situation changes slightly. You still should keep it away from your pets, it’s never good to let them get into bad habits after all. You should still keep them away from cats as well, which again will be covered in a short while.
It’s still preferable to keep your e-liquids away from your pets as the tasty smells from your e-liquids can often be irresistible to them. While it won’t necessarily hurt them to consume your e-liquids it’s still better to not have to keep buying more because your pet dog has drunk all of your stocks.
This means that while you don’t have to keep your nicotine free e-liquids locked away in a special box, you should still keep them safe. If at least to stop you having to buy new e-liquids at regular intervals.
Second Hand Vaping
Second hand vaping carries a similar name, but doesn’t carry the same dangers as second hand smoking. It’s been proven that vaping contains many magnitudes less harmful chemicals than smoking does. This means that the worries about second hand vaping are unfounded. The reason for this is that even the first hand vapour doesn’t contain a dangerous dose of any chemicals, so the second hand vapour contains even less.
This means that vaping around your pets isn’t a problem and you shouldn’t refrain from doing it. That doesn’t mean it’s okay to blow your smoke on your pets either though. While the levels of harmful chemicals are indeed incredibly low, the smaller size of most pets means that their threshold is much lower than ours.
There are a limited amount of studies available on whether second hand vaping is dangerous at the moment, but due to the number of studies that show vaping is safe it is unlikely that second hand vaping would increase the danger of vaping.
So while second hand vaping is almost completely harmless, the blowing of vapour onto your pets on purpose is something you should avoid. It most likely won’t cause any harm, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.
Cats
Cats as hinted at earlier are slightly different to other pets. While the various ingredients in e-liquid don’t harm other animals, nicotine apart, there is one specific ingredient in e-liquid that is harmful to cats. Propylene Glycol. Otherwise known as PG to vapers. Cats are sensitive to PG and this is an important reason to keep it away from your pet cat.
PG causes cats to develop a form of anaemia, it stops the red blood cells from being able to carry oxygen as efficiently. It is for this reason that PG was removed from the ingredient list for cat food.
Due to the negative effects of PG, it makes it all the more important to keep both your nicotine and nicotine free e-liquids safely stored away from your cats. The last thing that you want is to cause damage to your cat either through nicotine poisoning or by allowing them to consume PG and causing anaemia.
Ensure that the safety of your cats is paramount when you are vaping, don’t take any risks with the storage of your e-liquid and certainly don’t blow your vapour on them.
Overall
While it is well documented that the use of e-liquid is a significant amount safer than using cigarettes, e-liquids do still offer a small amount of danger to your pets. It’s important to remember that ensuring you keep your e-liquids in a safe place is something you remain vigilant about. The amount of nicotine in a bottle of e-liquid isn’t harmful to you, but it certainly would be to your pets.
