Effects of Cigarette Smoking on Newborns and Infants in a Rural Community.

VernacularTitle:農村における母親及び家族の喫煙状況と出生児・乳幼児に与える影響について
Author: Rikako KOMATSU ; Akiko MIURA ; Eiko SATO ; Sachiko SASAKI ; Mariko ANBO ; Ryoko SATO ; Kazuo KOMATSU ; Toshihiro OKAMURA ; Kazuhiko TAKANO
Publication Type:Journal Article
From:Journal of the Japanese Association of Rural Medicine 1995;44(2):93-98
CountryJapan
Language:Japanese
Abstract: Many researchers report that cigarette smoking by parents adversely affects their children. We carried out a survey about cigarette puffing by distributing questionnaires to mothers of sucklings and little children. The survey found that mothers and family members were not well aware of the health consequences of passive smoking. It was also found that children frequently exposed to smoking are at high risk of contracting infections of the respiratory tract. The average weight at birth was less in babies borned by smoking mothers than by those who do not smoke. Furthermore, it was revealed that a larger number of smoking mothers had given birth to low birth weight infants than nonsmoking mothers had.
These findings suggested that passive cigarette smoking is linked to low birth weight and respiratory tract infection. We think it is incumbent on us, health-care professionals, to bring home to mothers and the rest of the family members how serious the consequences of passive smoking are.