Mothers’ smoking ‘can impact on child’s immune system’

The smoking habits of mothers can have a significant impact on the immunity of infants, according to a new US study.

Researchers have reviewed hospitalisation records and death certificates of 50,000 infants born in the state of Washington between 1987 and 2004, assessing infant hospitalisations and deaths due to respiratory and non-respiratory infectious disease.

Children of mothers who smoked were shown to be 50 percent more likely to be admitted to a hospital or die from any of a wide variety of infectious diseases than babies of mothers who did not smoke, a link that existed independent of birth weight and gestational age.

It was also found that when mothers cut back on their cigarette smoking or quit partway through their pregnancy, it seems to lower their child's risk of infection.

Dr Abigail Halperin, the study's lead author, said: "Counselling pregnant women to reduce their smoking, if they are not able to quit completely, may help reduce infant hospitalisations or death."

The release of this report is timely given that the UK government is currently running its Stoptober campaign, which encourages smokers to kick the habit for an entire month.