Skip to main content
PMC home page
American Journal of Public Health logoLink to American Journal of Public Health
. 1995 Mar;85(3):395–398. doi: 10.2105/ajph.85.3.395

Passive and active maternal smoking as measured by serum cotinine: the effect on birthweight.

B Eskenazi 1, A W Prehn 1, R E Christianson 1
PMCID: PMC1614894  PMID: 7892926

Abstract

To determine how maternal exposure to environmental tobacco smoke affects birthweight, maternal sera obtained from 3529 pregnant women around 27 weeks gestation were analyzed for cotinine, a metabolite of nicotine. Based on cotinine levels, nonsmokers were divided into those exposed to environmental tobacco smoke (2-10 ng/mL) and those unexposed (< 2 ng/mL), and smokers were divided into tertiles. Compared with unexposed nonsmokers' infants, infants of exposed nonsmokers averaged 45 g less (P = .28) after adjustment for confounders, and smokers' infants averaged 78, 191, and 233 g less for the first, second, and third cotinine tertiles, respectively. Birthweight decreased 1 g for every nanogram per milliliter of cotinine increase (P < .001).

Full text

PDF
395

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Abel E. L. Smoking during pregnancy: a review of effects on growth and development of offspring. Hum Biol. 1980 Dec;52(4):593–625. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Ahlborg G., Jr, Bodin L. Tobacco smoke exposure and pregnancy outcome among working women. A prospective study at prenatal care centers in Orebro County, Sweden. Am J Epidemiol. 1991 Feb 15;133(4):338–347. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a115886. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Bassi J. A., Rosso P., Moessinger A. C., Blanc W. A., James L. S. Fetal growth retardation due to maternal tobacco smoke exposure in the rat. Pediatr Res. 1984 Feb;18(2):127–130. doi: 10.1203/00006450-198402000-00002. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Benowitz N. L., Kuyt F., Jacob P., 3rd, Jones R. T., Osman A. L. Cotinine disposition and effects. Clin Pharmacol Ther. 1983 Nov;34(5):604–611. doi: 10.1038/clpt.1983.222. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Butler N. R., Goldstein H., Ross E. M. Cigarette smoking in pregnancy: its influence on birth weight and perinatal mortality. Br Med J. 1972 Apr 15;2(5806):127–130. doi: 10.1136/bmj.2.5806.127. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Campbell M. J., Lewry J., Wailoo M. Further evidence for the effect of passive smoking on neonates. Postgrad Med J. 1988 Sep;64(755):663–665. doi: 10.1136/pgmj.64.755.663. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Chen Y., Pederson L. L., Lefcoe N. M. Passive smoking and low birthweight. Lancet. 1989 Jul 1;2(8653):54–55. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(89)90304-8. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. English P. B., Eskenazi B., Christianson R. E. Black-white differences in serum cotinine levels among pregnant women and subsequent effects on infant birthweight. Am J Public Health. 1994 Sep;84(9):1439–1443. doi: 10.2105/ajph.84.9.1439. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Friedman G. D., Petitti D. B., Bawol R. D. Prevalence and correlates of passive smoking. Am J Public Health. 1983 Apr;73(4):401–405. doi: 10.2105/ajph.73.4.401. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Haddow J. E., Knight G. J., Palomaki G. E., McCarthy J. E. Second-trimester serum cotinine levels in nonsmokers in relation to birth weight. Am J Obstet Gynecol. 1988 Aug;159(2):481–484. doi: 10.1016/s0002-9378(88)80114-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Haley N. J., Axelrad C. M., Tilton K. A. Validation of self-reported smoking behavior: biochemical analyses of cotinine and thiocyanate. Am J Public Health. 1983 Oct;73(10):1204–1207. doi: 10.2105/ajph.73.10.1204. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Hebel J. R., Fox N. L., Sexton M. Dose-response of birth weight to various measures of maternal smoking during pregnancy. J Clin Epidemiol. 1988;41(5):483–489. doi: 10.1016/0895-4356(88)90050-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Jacob P., 3rd, Benowitz N. L., Shulgin A. T. Recent studies of nicotine metabolism in humans. Pharmacol Biochem Behav. 1988 May;30(1):249–253. doi: 10.1016/0091-3057(88)90453-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Langone J. J., Gjika H. B., Van Vunakis H. Nicotine and its metabolites. Radioimmunoassays for nicotine and cotinine. Biochemistry. 1973 Nov 20;12(24):5025–5030. doi: 10.1021/bi00748a032. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Martin T. R., Bracken M. B. Association of low birth weight with passive smoke exposure in pregnancy. Am J Epidemiol. 1986 Oct;124(4):633–642. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a114436. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Meredith H. V. Relation between tobacco smoking of pregnant women and body size of their progeny: a compilation and synthesis of published studies. Hum Biol. 1975 Dec;47(4):451–472. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Nash J. E., Persaud T. V. Embryopathic risks of cigarette smoking. Exp Pathol. 1988;33(2):65–73. doi: 10.1016/s0232-1513(88)80127-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. Ogawa H., Tominaga S., Hori K., Noguchi K., Kanou I., Matsubara M. Passive smoking by pregnant women and fetal growth. J Epidemiol Community Health. 1991 Jun;45(2):164–168. doi: 10.1136/jech.45.2.164. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Pérez-Stable E. J., Marín B. V., Marín G., Brody D. J., Benowitz N. L. Apparent underreporting of cigarette consumption among Mexican American smokers. Am J Public Health. 1990 Sep;80(9):1057–1061. doi: 10.2105/ajph.80.9.1057. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  20. Reznik G., Marquard G. Effect of cigarette smoke inhalation during pregnancy in Sprague-Dawley rats. J Environ Pathol Toxicol. 1980 Nov;4(5-6):141–152. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Rubin D. H., Krasilnikoff P. A., Leventhal J. M., Weile B., Berget A. Effect of passive smoking on birth-weight. Lancet. 1986 Aug 23;2(8504):415–417. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(86)92132-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Scherer G., Conze C., Tricker A. R., Adlkofer F. Uptake of tobacco smoke constituents on exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS). Clin Investig. 1992 Mar-Apr;70(3-4):352–367. doi: 10.1007/BF00184672. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Yerushalmy J. The relationship of parents' cigarette smoking to outcome of pregnancy--implications as to the problem of inferring causation from observed associations. Am J Epidemiol. 1971 Jun;93(6):443–456. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a121278. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  24. Zhang J., Ratcliffe J. M. Paternal smoking and birthweight in Shanghai. Am J Public Health. 1993 Feb;83(2):207–210. doi: 10.2105/ajph.83.2.207. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from American Journal of Public Health are provided here courtesy of American Public Health Association

RESOURCES