Passive smoking increases risk to foetuses by up to 29%

EXPOSURE to passive smoking increases the risk of children developing respiratory problems by up to 29%, a new study shows.

The investigation examined 27,993 mothers and their children from 15 European countries, including Spain.

One of the report’s authors, Manolis Kogevinas, said that previous studies ‘had studied the effects on the foetus of a smoking mother, but not the result of passive smoking during pregnancy, nor with such a range of people and in so many countries’.

Unborn babies whose mothers are exposed to smoke up until their delivery stand a 29% chance of developing breathing difficulties within two years, the study shows.