Archive for May, 2008

In the United States more than 20 percent of women smoke. According to the World Health Organization, a similar number of women in other developed countries smoke, and about 9 percent of women in developing countries smoke. Many of these women smoke while they are pregnant. This is a major public health problem because,...
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Women who smoke during pregnancy put their babies at risk for a host of physical and developmental problems. But could they also tip the scales in favor of criminal activity and drug abuse by their children down the road? Patricia Brennan, Ph.D., an assistant professor of psychology at Emory University in Georgia, found that daughters...
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Many women who smoke are able to quit as soon as they find out they’re pregnant. But smoking is so addictive that other moms-to-be continue to smoke, even though they’ve heard that smoking is bad for the baby. If you’re addicted to cigarettes, you may try to convince yourself that smoking really isn’t so bad....
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Context  Tobacco increases the risk of systemic diseases, and it has adverse effects on pregnancy. However, only indirect data have been published on a possible genotoxic effect on pregnancy in humans. Objectives  To determine whether maternal smoking has a genotoxic effect on amniotic cells, expressed as an increased chromosomal instability, and to analyze whether any...
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Add another item to the long list of reasons to quit smoking: A new study finds that women who smoke during early pregnancy are more likely to have babies with congenital heart defects. U.S. researchers studied 566 infants with a congenital heart defect (CHD) and 491 infants without a CHD, along with their parents. They concluded...
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Weight-gain worries may help drive women who quit smoking during their pregnancy to start up again after delivery, new research shows. U.S. researchers interviewed 119 pregnant women in their third trimester who had smoked at least eight cigarettes a day but quit when they became pregnant. Of those women, 65 percent said they were highly motivated...
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Children whose mothers smoke during pregnancy tend to have more behavioral problems than those born to nonsmokers, a new study finds, and these behavioral problems begin to appear as early as 18 to 24 months of age. A team of American and British researchers say it’s the first study to link smoking during pregnancy and...
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Smoking during pregnancy greatly increases the risk of having a baby with finger or toe deformities, according to a study covering more than 6.8 million births in the United States during 2001 and 2002. The study identified 5,171 children with either extra, webbed or missing fingers and toes born to mothers who smoked during pregnancy....
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On top of its other risks to baby, maternal smoking during pregnancy may help trigger hearing-related cognitive defects in newborns — and fetal exposure to nicotine may be to blame, researchers say. That finding raises the concern that women who use the nicotine patch in an attempt to quit smoking during pregnancy might still be...
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Tobacco smoking is directly linked to many adverse health effects, including high blood pressure, heart disease and cancer. Smoking also is linked to specific eye disease. How Does Smoking Affect the Eyes? People who smoke cigarettes are at increased risk for developing cataracts, a clouding of the naturally clear lens of the eye. Cataracts cause...
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