Friday, August 27, 2010
Meconium, the dark and tarry stools passed by a baby during the
first few days after birth, can be used to determine how much the
mother smoked, or if she was exposed to tobacco smoke during
pregnancy. Researchers writing in BioMed Central's open access
journalEnvironmental
Health measured tobacco smoke metabolites in meconium
samples from 337 babies, finding that they correlated well with
reported smoke exposure and other markers of tobacco smoke
exposure.
Joe Braun, from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, USA,
worked with a team of researchers to carry out the study. He said,
"Prenatal active and secondhand tobacco smoke exposure is a
prevalent environmental exposure that is associated with adverse
infant and childhood health outcomes. Biomarkers of exposure, like
serum and meconium tobacco smoke metabolites, are useful to enhance
the measurement of tobacco smoke exposure, which is often
under-reported".
The researchers found that tobacco smoke metabolites in meconium
reflected the duration and intensity of gestational exposure to
tobacco smoke. Concentrations were higher and almost universally
detected among infants born to active smokers compared to women
with secondhand or no exposure. Speaking about further applications
of this research, Braun said, "Although meconium was not superior
to serum as a biomarker of tobacco smoke exposure, it may be useful
to estimate gestational exposure to other environmental toxicants
that exhibit more variability during pregnancy, especially
non-persistent compounds like bisphenol A and phthalates".
###
A prospective cohort study of biomarkers of prenatal tobacco smoke
exposure: the correlation between serum and meconium and their
association with infant birth weight
Joe M Braun, Julie L Daniels, Charlie Poole, Andrew F Olshan,
Richard Hornung, John T Bernert, Yang Xia, Cynthia Bearer, Dana
Boyd Barr and Bruce P Lanphear
Environmental Health (in press)
Thanks to BioMed Central for this
article.