Owning a cat increases your risk of developing breathing problems almost as much as hanging around a smoker, according to new research.
Households with pets tend to suffer more rhinitis and asthma symptoms, according to physician Martin Balzan, who led the EU-funded study on respiratory diseases.
Two-thirds of Maltese families own at least one pet – usually a cat (18 per cent) or dog (28 per cent).
While nearly 35 per cent of pet owners under observation suffered symptoms, 28 per cent of those without a pet also had a wheeze.
Households with pets tend to suffer more rhinitis and asthma symptoms
Dr Balzan, who presented the study at the annual conference of the European Respiratory Society, noted that since there could be other variables, the team carried out further research with people who experienced wheezing in the 12 months before the data was collected. It transpired that cat ownership increased their risk of symptoms by 1.65 times.
International literature states that cat ownership is a weak predictor, but in Malta’s data both rhinitis and asthma symptoms were higher in cat households.
Dr Balzan led the research with Chris Zammit, David Bilocca and Stephen Montefort.
Other factors included smoking at home, which increased symptoms by 1.75 times, having had bronchitis in their first year alive, which doubled their risk, and being male, which also increased the risk by 1.6 times.
Data for this study on the prevalence of allergic respiratory diseases in children aged between 11 and 14, called Respira, was collected from 46 houses and six schools across the islands.
The research shows high prevalence of asthma and rhinitis symptoms, which could be associated with a cocktail of traffic pollution and the Marsa power station.
Polluting particles were observed all over Malta during peaks traffic hours, while in the Ħamrun area data suggested that the power station filters were cleaned at night.
Monitoring the air outside the Ħamrun girls’ secondary school showed that on one particular night there was a high presence of suspended particulate matter, referred to as PM2.5, which cannot be explained by traffic.
These high levels are not recorded around the Marsaxlokk area where there is the necessary equipment to clean the power station’s filters without releasing particles in the air. This means that cleaning the Marsa power station filters at night was the most likely source, Dr Balzan said.
This was substantiated by a chemical analysis of particulate matter in the area of nickel vanadium which originates from fuel at the power station and which registered at much lower levels in the north of the island.
However, nickel vanadium was also noticed in Qormi, most likely originating from bakeries as they used heavy fuel oil, Dr Balzan noted.
These are some of the findings from the data collected for the Respira study, which the team is analysing to eventually publish findings in a scientific journal.
Eight papers have already been presented at the annual conference of the European Respiratory Society in Munich in September and last week figures were presented in Italy showing that Maltese youngsters are more than twice as likely to suffer from asthma as those in Sicily.
Another component of the study was the recording of volatile organic compound, which is found in chemicals emitted from paint or fuel storage.
The effect of this is not known yet. However, this was found in higher quantities – above those recommended by the EU – in Cospicua and Marsaxlokk.
These could be coming from the fuel storage tanks in Kalkara when it comes to Cospicua and storage of fuel in Marsaxlokk, Dr Balzan said.