Smokers’ Sons More Violent, Study Says

Male children born to women who smoke during pregnancy run a risk of violent and criminal behavior that lasts well into adulthood, perhaps because of central nervous system damage, a study said. The finding was consistent with earlier studies that linked prenatal smoking not only to lawbreaking by the offspring but to impulsive behavior and attention deficit problems, said researchers at Emory University in Atlanta, USC and the Institute of Preventive Medicine in Denmark. But they said their study--based on a look at the arrest histories up to age 34 of 4,169 males born between 1959 and 1961 in Copenhagen--was the first to show that the effect lasted beyond adolescence into adulthood. The study said the mechanism behind the effect might be damage done by smoking to the central nervous system of the fetus.