Secondhand Smoke Causes Mutations in Fetal DNA
The running theme this week seems to be smoking and the bad things it does to our DNA. Smoking is bad for smokers, but it’s also bad for the people around them who are exposed to secondhand smoke. Following up on my previous post about pregnant mothers who smoke and the effect on their babies, a larger study shows that secondhand smoke causes the same DNA mutations as primary exposure through maternal smoking. (i-Newswire, July 31, 2005)
According to the American Lung Association, secondhand smoke is not just the smoke given off by a burning cigarette, pipe, or cigar, it is also the smoke that comes from smokers’ exhalations. Residuals of secondhand smoke stays in the air for hours and can cause a number of health problems including cancer, respiratory infections, heart disease, and asthma.
Stephen G. Grant, Ph.D., associate professor of environmental and occupational health at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, found that babies whose mothers smoked or were exposed to secondhand smoke had the same type and frequency of DNA mutations. In this meta-study pooling data from multiple other smaller studies, secondhand smoke was defined as “exposure to tobacco smoke through other family members at home, at work or in social situations at restaurants or even outdoors.”
Dr. Grant said,
Perhaps, like certain pharmaceutical warnings, it would be appropriate to caution women to quit smoking if they are pregnant or likely to become pregnant. It is equally imperative that workplace protection be offered to reduce passive exposure.
These kinds of mutations are likely to have lifelong repercussions for the exposed fetus, affecting survival, birth weight and susceptibility to disease, including cancer.
It doesn’t surprise me that any kind of exposure to tobacco smoke is no good for your health. The trouble is that sometimes it’s hard to escape secondhand smoke even if you’re a non-smoker yourself. My family has been living in Asia for many years now where smoking is allowed almost everywhere and anywhere. That means we often find ourselves seated next to smokers at restaurants or walking behind a smoker flicking his ashes and fuming us with smoke.
In these situations, we can change where we sit or walk faster. (I once tried to escape so quickly that I tripped and fell on my knees in a filthy underground pedestrian tunnel in Taiwan.) But in our home or office, we would do many people a favor by encouraging smokers to quit; if not for their own health, then for the health of their children.
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POSTED IN: General Genetics and Health
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3 opinions for Secondhand Smoke Causes Mutations in Fetal DNA
CC Jones
Aug 4, 2005 at 11:41 am
I can remember reading the drinking and drugs section in the pregnancy books when I was pregnant and being amazed at how the cigarette section was so long and horrible, and the marijuana section was a short blurb–don’t do it. I have always assumed from those articles that a lot of the problems come from all of the additives put in during their manufacture. And cigarettes are legal?? Doesn’t make sense to me!
Lei
Aug 5, 2005 at 3:14 am
Christina, I bet the smoking section is so long because smoking is so much more common. Marijuana use probably pales in comparison. As for what kinds of addictive substances should be made legal or illegal, don’t get me in any trouble! Sugar and fat are addictive too and cause a lot of health problems. ;)
http://www.drugrehab.net/program.php
Jan 23, 2008 at 7:04 am
Marijuana use is quite frequent enough to make a serious matter, because it is much cheaper than most other drugs. Other than that, most of the substances that affect general health are bound to have a far worse effect on fetuses come into contact with them through their mothers.
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