Passive Smoking During Pregnancy Induces Adverse Epigenetic Alterations in Newborns

On May 31 every year, World Anti-tobacco Day is observed to create awareness about the ill effects of tobacco that cause 8 million deaths every year. This year the WHO has launched a year-long global campaign - “Commit to Quit” that aims to create healthier environments conducive to quitting tobacco. In this article, we have summarized the outcomes of a recent study that emphasizes the effect of passive smoking exposure during pregnancy on fetal health.

Read this article to know more. In a recent study published in the Environmental Health Perspectives , researchers at  Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center have shown for the first time how prenatal secondhand smoke exposure results in epigenetic changes, specifically DNA methylation, in newborns. Previous studies have shown the relation between smoking in pregnant mothers and altered DNA methylation in infant umbilical…