Tobacco.org

• Passive smoking in pregnancy linked to asthma risk in children 

Children born to women exposed to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) during pregnancy face an increased risk for asthma symptoms in early life, researchers warn.

“Smoking during pregnancy has been shown to be a considerable risk factor for changes in growth and maturation of the fetal lungs and the later development of wheeze and asthma,” explain Paraskevi Xepapadaki (University of Athens, Greece) and team in the journal Pediatric Allergy and Immunology.

But they add it is not known whether passive smoking in pregnancy is associated with an increased risk for asthma and allergies in offspring.

To investigate, the researchers studied data on 2374 preschool children, aged between 1 and 6 years, from 115 nurseries in five counties of Greece.

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