Study on Smoking Tallies Baby Deaths

Two researchers have produced startling numbers to back up the long-held belief that smoking during pregnancy can prove fatal to fetuses and infants.

Mothers who smoke cause the deaths of about 5,600 babies and cause between 19,000 and 141,000 miscarriages in America annually, said Joseph DiFranza and Robert Lew, who reviewed nearly 100 studies conducted over a 40-year period.

As many as 26,000 newborn babies are admitted to intensive-care units each year because of low birth weight caused by smoking, the researchers estimate in this month’s Journal of Family Practice.