Newborns sometimes arrive addicted to nicotine.
But a new study announced yesterday at the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society in Boston offers what researchers say is the first direct evidence that fetuses of women who smoke actually metabolize cancer-causing agents contained in tobacco. The study, conducted by University of Minnesota professor Stephen S. Hecht and sponsored by the National Cancer Institute, examined the first urine produced by 48 German newborns. Previous studies have shown a relationship between NNK and lung cancer in humans, as well as tumors in mice, rats and hamsters. Experiments also have shown that NNK is a statistically significant cause of tumors in the offspring of pregnant hamsters and mice given the chemical, Hecht said. Although researchers found no trace of NNK in newborns of non-smokers, they detected the carcinogen in 22 of 31 newborns of mothers who smoked during pregnancy.