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When parents smoke, babies take on carcinogens

Respiratory Care Weekly, May 17, 2006

The latest study in the May Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention on the effect of parents' smoking around their children reveals an ugly truth. Smoke-borne carcinogens show up in babies' urine when they are exposed to the smoke from 27 or more cigarettes per week. Studies have not determined how the long-term risk of exposure to cancer-causing tobacco smoke affects the genetics of babies. However, the study's findings support the concept that persistent exposure to environmental tobacco smoke in childhood could be related to cancer later in life.

"The take home message is, 'Don't smoke around your kids,'" said Stephen S. Hecht, PhD, professor and Wallin Chair of Cancer Prevention at The Cancer Center at the University of Minnesota.

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