Smoking & Birth Defects - KCBD NewsChannel 11 Lubbock

1/12/06

Smoking & Birth Defects

We hear a lot about the problems smoking can cause but this new information is startling. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania studied nearly 7 million births in a recent two year period, and they found all it took was one cigarette a day during pregnancy and those women had a 29% higher risk of having a child born with either webbed feet or extra fingers or toes.

Among pregnant women who smoked more than a pack a day, the risk climbed to 78 percent. Study led by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and published in the journal, "Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.

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