WOMEN who smoke during pregnancy nearly triple the risk their children will be born with attention deficit disorder, Danish researchers said. An expectant mother who smokes exposes her foetus to relatively high concentrations of nicotine, which alter receptors for the brain essential for brain development, said doctors from Aarhus University, Copenhagen. The researchers compared the backgrounds of 170 children diagnosed with hyperactive disorders against 3,800 children matched by age. Of those mothers with children born with the disorder, 59 per cent were smokers. The study found expectant mothers who smoked during pregnancy had a nearly three-fold risk of having a child with hyperkinetic disorders, which involves excessive mus- cular activity, inattention and impulsive behaviour including attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder.

CIGARETTE smoking and being exposed to secondhand smoke during pregnancy are equally likely to cause permanent genetic mutations in the foetus, a new report concludes. Dr Stephen G. Grant, an associate professor of environmental and occupational health at the University of Pittsburgh, found that babies born to active smokers, to women who were exposed to secondary smoke during pregnancy and to women who quit smoking when they found out they were pregnant, all had similar and significant increases in gene mutations. A woman who quits smoking when she discovers she is pregnant, Dr Grant said, is more likely to be exposed to second-hand smoke. "She is likely to continue to socialise with friends and family who smoke and to frequent places where others continue to smoke, thinking that exposure to other smokers is not such a big deal," he said.