Exposing unborn babies to cigarette smoke is known to pose a risk to the brain – and new findings suggest the offspring of heavy smokers may succumb to criminal behaviour.
The US study shows that women who smoke heavily in pregnancy may give birth to children who repeatedly fall foul of the law.
Children of women who smoke more than 20-a-day were found to have a 30 per cent increased chance of being arrested as young adults.
The findings come from a study of some 4,000 families in Rhode Island, USA.
The findings are reported in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
Researcher Dr Angela Paradis, of the Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA, says previous research has shown a link between smoking in pregnancy and hyperactivity and poor attention span.
* A second study today links exposure to other people’s smoke to loss of hearing.
US researchers studied more than 3,000 adults, taking blood samples to measure their exposure to tobacco for the report in the journal Tobacco Control.
They conclude that both former smokers and "passive smokers" faced an increased risk of hearing loss. Almost 25 per cent of non-smokers found to be exposed to high levels of other people’s smoke had high frequency hearing loss, according to Dr David Farbry, of Starkey Laboratories, Minnesota, USA.
Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health doi 10.1136/hech.2009095802
Tobacco Control 2010 Doi 100.1136/tc.2010.035832
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