Early exposure to tobacco smoke causes asthma and allergy
July 22nd, 2008
Children of mothers who had smoked while pregnant ran double the risk of developing asthma before the age of four. A new study from Swedish Karolinska Institutet shows the consequences of smoking during pregnancy.
It is a well known fact that babies are harmed by tobacco smoke in numerous ways, but it has always been difficult to separate the effects of the mother smoking during pregnancy and passive smoking after birth.
A new study from the Swedish institute Karolinska shows that smoking during pregnancy increases the chances of the child developing asthma. The study showed that children of mothers who had smoked while pregnant ran double the risk of developing asthma before the age of four. There was a clear correlation between the number of cigarettes smoked and the risk of developing asthma.
The study also showed that passive smoking in early childhood increases the risk of allergy. Four-year olds who were exposed to tobacco smoke when they were two months old had allergy antibodies against one or more allergens in the blood, which were more often than their coevals from non-smoking homes.
Smoking during pregnancy is least common amongst the higher educated. Of the 4 000 interviewed mothers, 7 per cent of those with university-level education said that they had smoked while pregnant. Among those who had opted out of tertiary or secondary education, the corresponding number was 20 per cent. The data applies to mothers of children born between 1994 and 1996.
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