Transgenerational Exposure to Environmental Tobacco Smoke

Abstract

Traditionally, nicotine from second hand smoke (SHS), active or passive, has been considered the most prevalent substance of abuse used during pregnancy in industrialized countries. Exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) is associated with a variety of health effects, including lung cancer and cardiovascular diseases. Tobacco is also a major burden to people who do not smoke. As developing individuals, newborns and children are particularly vulnerable to the negative effects of SHS. In particular, prenatal ETS has adverse consequences during the entire childhood causing an increased risk of abortion, low birth weight, prematurity and/or nicotine withdrawal syndrome. Over the last years, a decreasing trend in smoking habits during pregnancy has occurred, along with the implementation of laws requiring smoke free public and working places. The decrease in the incidence of prenatal tobacco exposure has usually been assessed using maternal questionnaires. In order to diminish bias in self-reporting, objective biomarkers have been developed to evaluate this exposure. The measurement of nicotine and its main metabolite, cotinine, in non-conventional matrices such as cord blood, breast milk, hair or meconium can be used as a non-invasive measurement of prenatal SMS in newborns. The aim of this review is to highlight the prevalence of ETS (prenatal and postnatal) using biomarkers in non-conventional matrices before and after the implementation of smoke free policies and health effects related to this exposure during foetal and/or postnatal life.

Maternal Smoking During Pregnancy and Offspring Birth Weight: A Genetically-Informed Approach Comparing Multiple Raters

“…It has also been associated with prenatal ischemia-hypoxia (see Smith et al, under review), respiratory disease (Cook and Strachan 1999), cancer later in life (Doherty et al 2009), and a host of neurodevelopmental and behavioral outcomes (Knopik 2009; see Bidwell et al, under review and Palmer et al, under review in this special issue for reviews). Findings also suggest that there are a variety of placental complications linked to prenatal exposure to cigarette smoke (e.g., alterations to the development and function of the placenta; Einarson and Riordan 2009), which could effectively translate into a number of sequelae (e.g., intrauterine growth retardation and later behavioral problems; Huizink and Mulder 2006; Knopik 2009; Joya et al 2014). …”

Evidence for respiratory viruses interactions in asymptomatic preschool-aged children

“…Indeed, smoking is frequently misreported, especially in areas with a high prevalence of female smokers, as is often the case in Mediterranean countries. 19 Cotinine has a half-life of about 18 h in children 20 and is currently considered the most accurate approach to estimate short-term SHS exposure. 21 Since the duration of the study was rather short, major changes in parental smoking habits were not expected.…”

Maternal and Neonatal Hair and Breast Milk in The Assessment of Perinatal Exposure to Drugs of Abuse

“…In the fetus, hair starts growing at approximately 6 months of gestational age and reaches the scalp surface after approximately 3 weeks [20,45]. Although the detection window is smaller than for meconium, neonatal hair has the advantage of being available for as long as 4-5 months of postnatal life [3].…”