- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Researchers on Tuesday said they had found traces
of a cancer-causing agent in the urine of babies born to women who smoked.
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- Of 31 babies born to smokers, 22 had
the chemical in the first sample of urine collected after birth, the researchers
reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
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- Stephen Hecht of the University of Minnesota
and colleagues at Heinrich Heine University in Dusseldorf, Germany said
they found by-products of NNK, a chemical derived from nicotine, in the
urine they tested.
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- NNK is known to cross the placenta from
mother to baby, and causes cancer in animals.
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- Although nicotine itself is not considered
to be a cancer-causing agent, some of its breakdown products are.
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- Hecht, who reported some of his findings
last year to a meeting of the American Chemical Society in Boston, said
the study showed that babies are absorbing cancer-causing agents from their
mothers before birth.
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- Other studies have shown that mothers
can pass on elements of tobacco smoke to their babies in breast milk.
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- Smoking is known to increase the risk
of having a baby with a low birth weight, as well are increasing the risk
of losing a baby to sudden infant death syndrome, also known as SIDS or
crib death.
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- "In spite of this, only 39 percent
of smokers quit while pregnant and of those who quit, 70 percent resume
within one year of giving birth," Hecht wrote.
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- He said studies are not yet clear on
whether babies born to smokers are at higher risk of cancer in their lifetimes.
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- Hecht reported in 1997 that NNK had been
found in the urine of nonsmoking adults who were exposed to cigarette smoke
at work.
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