Maternal Smoking Linked to SIDS

In a study of 32 infants who died of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), Australian researchers have concluded that maternal smoking during pregnancy alters airway structure and can account for the symptoms and abnormal lung function found in the infants. The study was published in the January 1, 2003, issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

The researchers studied airway and other tissues together with autopsy data on the 32 infants. They say that alterations in airway structure from in utero cigarette smoke exposure are those likely to result in excessive airway narrowing in response to irritants encountered during the postnatal period. Furthermore, the level of change in the inner airway wall of the infants exposed in the womb may be dose-related, especially in mothers who smoked more than 20 cigarettes per day. Smoking mothers, the researchers believe, tend to under-report the number of cigarettes they smoke.

The study was led by Dr. Philip Robinson, of the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne (Australia).




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Royal Children's Hospital