Newborns Smoke Carcinogen

Women who smoke during pregnancy transmit a known cancer-causing substance from tobacco to their children, producing what University of Minnesota scientists deemed “an unacceptable risk.” About 61% of smoking women who become pregnant do not give up the habit during their pregnancy, according to a 1990 study.

Chemist Stephen S. Hecht and his colleagues examined first urine samples from 48 newborns, both from smoking and nonsmoking mothers. He will tell an American Chemical Society meeting in Boston today that he found metabolites of a chemical called NKK in the urine of 22 of 31 babies whose mothers smoked during pregnancy, but in none of the 17 babies whose mother did not smoke. NKK is the most potent carcinogen in cigarette smoke. The fact that he identified metabolites of NKK indicates not only that the fetus is receiving the chemical, but also that it is processing the chemical as well.

Epidemiologist Leslie L. Robinson of the University of Minnesota Cancer Center said studies on smoking during pregnancy have been inconclusive in linking the habit to childhood cancers. But the finding of the potent carcinogen in a baby’s urine, she added, should give epidemiologists greater incentive for further study.

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