
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 23, 1994                   TAG: 9402230187
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

SECOND-HAND SMOKE CALLED RISK TO UNBORN

In research that provides the first biochemical proof that second-hand cigarette smoke affects unborn children, doctors in Toronto have shown that tobacco's toxic elements accumulate in the fetuses of pregnant women who do not smoke but who live or work closely with smokers.

The study confirms long-held suspicions that being in the womb does not protect fetuses from second-hand smoke.

By measuring levels of nicotine and cotinine - a long-lasting byproduct of nicotine - in the hair of newborns, the study found levels of cotinine twice as high in infants of women exposed to smokers than in those born to nonsmokers.

One baby was exposed to so much second-hand smoke that, the study found, it was as if the mother had smoked five cigarettes a day.

The research is published in today's Journal of the American Medical Association, in an issue devoted exclusively to the health effects of tobacco. - Los Angeles Times

by CNB