E-cigarettes are not dangerous for pets unless they ingest the nicotine. Cats are different though because propylene glycol (PG) is very dangerous to them. To avoid any risks, store your e-liquids somewhere they can’t access, preferably in a closed cupboard. Keeping them out of reach works for children, but not for our 4-legged friends as it only piques their curiosity.
Protecting your pet
We love our four-legged friends and all our pets. But do we really take proper care when it comes to protecting them from the dangers of coming into contact with our e-liquids? You keep bottles of e-liquid out of reach of children to stop them from ingesting the liquid, so why not do the same for your pets? After all, our pets are more inquisitive than almost any other creatures on Earth and it doesn’t take much to get them exploring! Just watch what happens when you put something out of reach – suddenly your pet thinks it’s the most interesting thing in the world.
Nicotine e-liquids + animals = danger
We know these days that e-liquids are not really harmful to human health. Sure, if you decided to drink several bottles* of your favourite e-liquid, it would do you no good at all. But e-liquids won’t harm your health if you use them properly. However, this is not always true for animals depending on the size of the pet that ingests the liquid. It’s common sense: the smaller the animal the less it can tolerate nicotine. For a human who accidentally drinks half a 10ml bottle of e-liquid, it’s hardly life-threatening. But if it’s a small dog, the effects of ingesting the liquid will be much more severe and can even lead to the animal’s death.
The only ingredient in e-liquids that is really harmful to our pets is nicotine, except for cats which are a special case. The other ingredients in e-liquids are relatively benign for humans and for our four-legged friends. It’s fairly common to even find some of them in pet food. Even so, it’s vital to prevent them from ingesting any by accident, so how exactly do you do it?
Store your e-liquids properly
It’s easy to store your liquids out of reach of children to keep them safe. Most of the time you just have to put them somewhere high enough to be out of their reach. However, even if something is out of the reach of a child, our agile pets may still be able to reach it. They are naturally attracted to anything that’s high up. They also have a sense of smell that’s far more developed than ours, making them curious to find out just what is making that delicious strawberry smell they can’t ignore. So, to prevent accidents, we recommend that you store your e-liquids high up and in a closed cupboard so that they can’t get to them.
Cats are different
Although most e-liquid ingredients are not in themselves dangerous to our pets, it’s very different for cats. Propylene glycol, or PG, is highly toxic to them. In cats, PG causes a form of anaemia which means they have far fewer red blood cells in their bodies. This leads to lethargy and other serious consequences.
So, to keep your animals and your children safe, please store all of your e-liquids in a high cupboard with a door.
* According to Dr Bernd R Mayer from the Pharmaceutical Sciences Institute at the University of Graz, Austria (Institut für Pharmazeutische Wissenschaften), the lethal dose of ingested nicotine is at least 500 to 1,000 mg, or 6.5 to 13mg/kg.
