Air Cleaners: Making Sure They Don't Damage Ferret Lungs

By Sukie Crandall

  One concern in homes with ferrets is air cleaners. People want them to be not only effective but also safe. In our family with some of us having allergists and a few others having pulmonologists we have often echoed the advice of those experts: that it is usually best to avoid ionizing air cleaners because some simply are not safe enough for humans in terms of ozone created, which also means that they could potentially be even harder on ferret lungs. Ozone may smell thunderstorm fresh but it is a pollutant. One quote from the Consumer Reports article: "Experts agree that ozone concentration more than 80 ppb for eight hours or longer can cause coughing, wheezing, and chest pain while worsening asthma and deadening your sense of smell. It also raises sensitivity to pollen, mold and other respiratory allergy triggers, and may cause permanent lung damage."

  Of the seven models CU tested only two ionizing air cleaners were recommended, but the other five were judged to have poor performance and in some cases also to create high ozone levels (page 25). Another quote in the article, this time from Jonathan Samet, MD, the chairman of the epidemiology department of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, "We can't guarantee safety at any ozone level, so it makes sense not to contaminate your living space."

  There is also the problem that some of these can poof out all of the dust in them in one burst if there is a power outage, or sometimes even in a brown out. (Useful to have a spouse who was once involved in the design of a clean room that was stricter than many operating rooms -- and who swears by HEPA filter air cleaners as do the allergists and pulmonologists used by the family members...)

  It turns out that there is even more to consider. I didn't know this but ozone inside can react with the terpenes in cleaning products and air fresheners to create formaldehyde which is a carcinogen, and the particulate size involved is also a concern.

  Here is this new resource for you:
Consumer Reports: May 2005, page 9 (Sharper Image ordered by court to cover CU court costs since inaccuracies were not found in reporting on an air cleaner they sell) and pages 22 - 25 (tests of air clearers).

  They write that they also plan a more extensive air cleaner report late this year.

  Ferrets are sensitive enough to tobacco smoke that they are used in some studies of its effects, and there have been ferret-list past reports of some who reacted badly to certain air cleaners. It would be a shame if people trying to counteract such effects, or even just trying to reduce the smell of ferret in their homes endangered the health of the four footed and two footed family members instead.

References

  Searching for "ozone ferret," I find a lot of URLs including:

http://ajrccm.atsjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/162/3/1152

The pdf download is available.

Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med., Volume 162, Number 3, September 2000, 1152-1156

Ozone-induced Epithelial Injury in the Ferret Is Similar to Nonhuman Primates

ANJA STERNER-KOCK, MARTIN KOCK, RUEDI BRAUN, and DALLAS M. HYDE

Department of Anatomy, Physiology and Cell Biology and California Regional Primate Research Center, University of California, Davis, California

Extrapolation to humans from rodent ozone exposure is limited by the anatomic differences between the species. Ferrets have similar pulmonary structures to humans, with well developed respiratory bronchioles and submucosal glands. We exposed adult ferrets, monkeys, and rats to 1 ppm ozone (O3) or filtered air for 8 h followed by 1 h in filtered air. Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) analysis, histopathology, and confocal microscopy were used to evaluate ozone-induced epithelial injury and inflammation. BAL showed significantly increased numbers of neutrophils in ozone-exposed as compared with filtered air ferrets, monkeys, and rats. However, there were 3- to 4-fold more neutrophils in monkeys and ferrets per milliliter of BAL than in rats. Ozone-exposed lungs showed a >severe, acute infiltration of neutrophils...

We conclude that acute ozone exposure in ferrets induce severe epithelial necrosis and inflammation, results in similar epithelial injury compared with monkeys, and represents a better model of humans than rodents.

See citation.

Environ Res. 1991 Jun;55(1):79-90.

Effects of ozone on the cholinergic secretory responsiveness of ferret tracheal glands.

McBride RK, Oberdoerster G, Marin MG.

Department of Medicine, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, New York 14642-8692.

Oxidant air pollutants exacerbate several pulmonary diseases. Inhalation of ozone has been shown to induce airway smooth muscle hyperresponsiveness. Oxidant injury could also affect airway secretory mechanisms...

These experiments suggest that oxidant injury not only increases basal secretion of respiratory glycoconjugates but also increases tracheal gland sensitivity to a cholinergic agonist.

  From that article, you can hit "Related Articles" and pull up 129 articles, not all of them work in ferrets but those are included in the ones listed.

  This article and information are reprinted from the Ferret Health List with permission from Sukie Crandall.

Join the Ferret Health List (FHL) by visiting:
http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/ferrethealth
The FHL has a lot of great ferret health experts and information.
 

More HEPA Filters

  HEPA filters don't work the same way that ionizing air cleaners do; they do not produce harmful ozone. We've used a HEPA filter for years to keep allergens to a minimum and to help reduce any odors.

  Gerber Baby Food and Ferrets

By Mary R. Shefferman

  We’ve relied on Gerber baby food for our ferrets for years. Many times, it was the only food a sick or recovering ferret would eat. We gave it as a treat to get our ferrets used to the taste so when they were sick, they'd take it readily.

  Recently, Gabby has been having tooth problems (she just had two teeth removed). To help her get through the mouth soreness, we’ve been feeding her baby food. Gerber's 2nd Chicken baby food, to be exact. But someone on one of the ferret lists I am on mentioned that they now add starch to Gerber food. Hmmm... So I looked at the jar, and sure enough, there’s starch added.

  Ferrets are carnivores. If you can give them straight meat, that's better than giving them meat with starch (or anything else) added. Since feeding baby food is usually a temporary measure used to keep a ferret eating when he's not feeling well, it's best to use something that doesn't have anything added to it. In short: the simpler, the better.

  The discovery that we've been unwittingly giving ferrets added starch is a bit disturbing. It means that we have to read labels more than once! Now we are reminded to do that. Sometimes pet food manufacturers will change the formula on a particular food without any notice. The change rarely affects the taste of the food -- and usually the change is an improvement over the previous formula. We never realized they might do that with baby food!

  Now we’ve switched over to BeachNut Stage 1 baby food. It has no added starch, just chicken and chicken broth. At first, Gabby seemed uninterested in the BeachNut food, but after mixing it with Gerber food for a while, she switched over nicely. Meat for the meat-eaters!

  If you weren’t aware of this ingredient change, now you are.

  Thanks for reading. We hope you learned something today. For more boffo ferret information, check our Topical Index, Newsletter Archives, or order the Super Monster Pack.

--Mary & Eric & Gabby, the lone modern ferret