Children, who are exposed to passive smoking when in the womb of the mother, may have asthma at a later age.
Researchers of the study had conducted an 11-year observation of incidence of asthma and other respiratory diseases in Norway said that maternal smoking is significantly related to incidence of asthma in childhood. Passive smoking by the other household family members also may contribute towards the incidence of asthma in children.Researchers are of the opinion that 25% of the incidences of asthma can be explained by the exposure to tobacco smoke in the prenatal stage. The estimated data of the research also suggests that a quarter of the yearly cases of incidence of asthma may be prevented if it is possible to restrict the exposure of the baby to the prenatal cigarette smoke.
The researchers had began the study in 1985 and flowed up on the health records of the participants till 1996 during which they have included data from 2819 participants regarding asthma and five other respiratory symptom related conditions.
Reference: American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, July 2005
