The 13th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health

Objective: Aim of the study was evaluate of exposure of foetus smoking women on tobacco smoke.

Methods: The socio-economic status of 115 delivering women and their addiction to tobacco was estimated in questionnaire surveys. The cotinine in the urine of mother and newborn was measured by HPLC.

Results: 40,9% of women in the examined group smoked tobacco usually 1-5 cigarettes per day. A statistically significant relationship between smoking and the socio-economic status of examined women was observed. The concentration of cotinine in the urine of non-smoking women and their newborns was below the sensitivity of the method. In case of the smoking women, concentration of cotinine was 648 ng/mg creatinine and in the urine of infants 86 ng/mg creatinine what confirmed their exposure to tobacco smoke. On average, the children of the smoking mothers were lighter by 611 g and shorter by 4 cm in comparison with the children of non-smoking mothers. However, it was stated that cotinine is a good biomarker either of the exposure of smoking women or their newborn to tobacco smoke, no correlation neither between its concentration and number of smoked cigarettes nor the condition of the newborns (weight, length) was shown. The lack of this correlation may be connected with a relatively short biological half-live of cotinine and the necessity to quit smoking entirely by women staying at the maternity department (1-2 days before delivery).

Financed by the State Committee for Scientific Research, grant no. 2 P05E 103 26