THE World Health Organization, WHO has warned that prenatal tobacco exposure adversely affects the growth of children.
The new document released on the organizations website highlights the harmful role of tobacco use in child stunting, a condition that affects nearly 150 million children worldwide, mostly in Africa and Asia. Stunting increases the risk of disease, delayed development, and can even cause death.
"Prenatal tobacco exposure from maternal smoking during pregnancy has been extensively re-ported to be associated with FGR and smallness for gestational age (SGA) . Numerous studies have reported that smoking during pregnancy can lead to reduced birth length in infants and shorter stature in children. The literature also indicates a dose-response relationship between smoking during pregnancy and all adverse growth outcomes, including stunting, in children: the im-pact is greater if the number of cigarettes smoked is more than 10 a day.
"Maternal tobacco smoking during pregnancy has been found to be one of the strongest behavioural risk factors for stunting. The pathophysiology behind maternal smoking during pregnancy and adverse growth outcomes in children has been well studied in the literature. Active maternal smoking can cause stunting prenatally through various mechanisms. One is oxidative stress, which can impair growth and development.
"Prena-tal exposure to maternal smoking can also cause epigenetic modifications that can alter the expres-sion of genes involved in growth and development, potentially leading to long-term growth deficits. A recent systematic review found statis-tically significant associations between waterpipe tobacco smoking and various pregnancy outcomes, including low birth weight.
"Maternal tobacco use during pregnancy is simi-larly associated with adverse growth outcomes in children under 5 years of age. For example, one study found that prenatal exposure to tobacco smoke, even from additive-free cigarettes and cigarettes with reduced tar and nicotine content, can interfere with osteogenic differentiation and inhibit growth in children" the report added
WHO also warns that it impairs growth and development and occurs when a child's height-for-age is more than two standard deviations below the WHO Child Growth Standards.