Secondhand Cigarette Smoke as Harmful to Fetus as Inhaled Smoke, Study Says

Main Category: Pregnancy / Obstetrics
Article Date: 09 Sep 2005 - 23:00 PDT

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Secondhand cigarette smoke exposure might be as harmful to a fetus as a pregnant woman inhaling smoke directly from a cigarette, according to a study published in... BMC Pediatrics on June 29, the Seattle Times reports. Stephen Grant, an associate professor of environmental and occupational health at the University of Pittsburgh, examined umbilical-cord blood data from three previously published studies that overlooked or disregarded the effects of secondhand smoke on fetuses. According to the study, secondhand cigarette smoke can cause genetic mutations in the fetus that can lead to leukemia and lymphoma. The mutations in fetuses of women exposed to secondhand smoke were indistinguishable from those found in the fetuses of pregnant smokers. Grant said he hopes the study will motivate pregnant women to be more aware of the effects of secondhand smoke and encourage smokers to be more conscientious of those around them. "The perception has been that smoking is the major problem and secondhand smoke is something we deal with down the road," Grant said, adding, "But here we have absolute evidence that passive exposure to cigarette smoke can cause just as much damage as if the mother was doing the smoking herself" (Eskenazi, Seattle Times, 9/7). A different study published in the March 9 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that fetuses of women who had smoked at least 10 cigarettes per day were more than three times as likely to have genetic abnormalities than the fetuses of nonsmokers. Although numerous studies have shown that cigarette smoking during pregnancy causes various adverse effects for developing fetuses, previously, only indirect data have suggested that exposure to cigarette smoking can cause genetic mutations in fetuses (Kaiser Daily Reproductive Health Report, 3/10).

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