Mothers Who Smoke

Children whose mothers smoke face increased chances of contracting respiratory diseases such as emphysema, Harvard Medical School researchers have found.

Although the injurious effects of "passive smoking" have already been discovered, this study is the first to chart development of the effect over a long period of time--eight years.

The researchers studied a group of more than 1,100 East Boston schoolchildren, testing their lung capacity--the maximum amount of air a person can exhale in one second--once a year.

Children of mothers who smoke averaged 4 or 5 percent less lung capacity than normal, said Dr. Ira B. Tager, leader of the research team. This condition has been linked to respiratory problems that occur later in life, the researchers concluded.

Research on the effects of parental cigarette smoking on children began only nine years ago, said Nancy Lichter of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. She added that this was the first study she knew of that investigated diminished lung capacity.

"Other investigators have learned that children whose mothers smoke have developmental reading and math difficulties, and infants have double the average number of respiratory illnesses," Lichter said.

She also said that pregnant women who smoke have higher miscarriage rates and they are more likely to have underweight babies.

Tager said that the effects of fathers smoking have not been determined.

The Harvard researchers began their study in 1975 looking to "address only the general question of the effect of genetic and environmental factors on disease risk," said Tager. "Only in the last few years did we realize the public health implications of the study," he added.

A division of the National Institutes of Health backed the research with a $350,000 grant. The institutes recently awarded the team $1,000,000 to continue the project over the next five years.

The results appeared in a recent edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Asked whether their mothers smoked, Lichter said that hers had not and Tager said he was "just not sure." Lichter said that she has never smoked and Tager said he quit 16 years ago. "I didn't need this kind of study to know it was bad for me," he explained.