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Excerpts from: Smokers Cut Baby's Risk by Stepping Outside Room

By Alison McCook Reuters Health [03/04/03]

SOURCE: American Journal of Public Health 2003;93:482-488.

Infants of mothers who light up in the same room with them are more likely to be hospitalized with a respiratory infection during their first year of life than offspring of smoking mothers who took it outside, according to a new study.
These findings indicate that mothers who haven't been able to kick the habit should step out of the room in order to protect their children from the dangers of secondhand smoke, according to the Australian researchers.

"We found that the safest option for your infant is for you to stop smoking," study author Dr. Leigh Blizzard of the University of Tasmania in Australia told Reuters Health. .