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From public service announcements on radio and television to warning labels on cigarette packaging, we've all be told of the hazards of smoking-increased rates of cancer, heart attacks, strokes, and respiratory diseases among them. But for children, both before and after birth, the list of possible effects from exposure to cigarette smoke is staggering.
According to information on tobacco and pregnancy found on the Web site of the Centre of Excellence for Early Childhood Development, pre-birth exposure to cigarette smoke due to a mother's smoking during pregnancy has been linked to a number of physical and mental health problems. They include reduced auditory orientation and responsiveness and increased tremors and startles in newborns, decreased cognitive and verbal performance and increased behavioural and psychological problems.
Research has also shown a link between fetal exposure to nicotine and problems with learning, memory and problem solving.
The Saskatchewan Lung Association Web site also provides information on the effects of smoking while pregnant, linking it with increased rates of miscarriage, premature delivery and stillbirth, as well as lower birthrates and ongoing health problems throughout life.
Pre-natal maternal smoking as well as exposure to second-hand smoke after birth has also been linked to increased rates of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).
Second-hand smoke exposure causes children to have more colds, ear infections, and respiratory problems such as pneumonia and bronchitis. As well, mothers who smoke and breastfeed can pass nicotine on to their baby through the breast milk.
Despite the risks, it is estimated that about one-fifth of pregnant women in Canada continue to smoke during their pregnancy. According to the National Longitudinal Study on Children and Youth conduced by Statistics Canada almost a decade ago, about 23 per cent of Canadian women smoked during pregnancy, and more than 80 per cent of those women smoked throughout the entire pregnancy. Those working in the field believe those numbers may be low, as some women may be reluctant to admit they've continued to smoke during pregnancy because of social pressure to quit while pregnant.
Of those women who do give up smoking while pregnant, the majority return to smoking after having the baby. If they smoke around their children, they are exposing them to second-hand smoke.
According to information on the Saskatchewan Health Web site, second-hand smoke contains more than 4,000 chemicals, including 50 known to be cancer causing. Exposing a child to second-hand smoke means exposing them to arsenic, benzene, lead, formaldehyde, carbon monoxide, dangerous levels of nitrogen dioxide and hydrogen cyanide, and twice as much nicotine and tar as the smoker gets from smoking their cigarette.
According to Saskatchewan Health figures, 27 per cent of children in Saskatchewan are exposed to second-hand smoke in their homes.
You can get more information on the affects of smoking and second-hand smoke exposure, as well as help if you're thinking about quitting, on these Web sites:
Centre of Excellence for Early Childhood
Development
www.excellence_earlychildhood.ca
Saskatchewan Lung
Association
Saskatchewan Institute on Prevention of Handicaps
Saskatchewan Health
Canadian Cancer Society
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