Spont. Abortions After the Gulf War & Smoking During Pregnancy

["Franta, Jaroslav" <frantaj@aecl.ca>]

A couple of interesting stories from ABDC....

> ----------
> From: 	abdc@birthdefects.org[SMTP:abdc@birthdefects.org]
> Reply To: 	abdc@birthdefects.org
> Sent: 	Wednesday March 29, 2000 10:04 AM
> To: 	newsletter@birthdefects.org
> Subject: 	E-News  March 2000
> 
> Association of Birth Defect Children 
> E-News   March 2000 
> 
> Study Finds Increase in Spontaneous 
> Abortions After the Gulf War 
> 
> Several published reports from Iraq, Kuwait and now from Bahrain have
> found an increase in the incidence of spontaneous abortion and adverse
> outcome of pregnancy after the Gulf War of 1991. The mechanism is not
> clear, i.e. whether this is affected by toxicity acquired through the food
> chain, the oil spillage, smoke pollution resulting from the burning of the
> Kuwaitioil fields or stress and anxiety caused by the war. 
> 
> Incidence of spontaneous abortion in Bahrain before and after the Gulf War
> of 1991.Rajab KE, Mohammad AM, Mustafa F 
> Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Salmaniya MedicalCenter, Bahrain.
> yonrajab@batelco.com.bh 
>   
> 
> Smoking During Pregnancy Increases Risk 
> Of Cleft Lip Or Palate In Baby 
> 
> Women who smoke while pregnant are 50 percent to 70 percent more likely
> than nonsmokers to give birth to a baby with a cleft lip or palate,
> according to a new study by researchers at the University of Michigan
> Health System.  The risk of the serious facial birth defect rises with the
> number of cigarettes that a mother-to-be smokes each day, even after
> factors like the mother's race, age and educational level are
> considered.The finding, based on the largest-ever examination of cleft lip
> and palate incidence nationwide, suggests that the deformity should be
> added to the list of potential harmful effects from smoking during
> pregnancy. 
> 
> The results were recently published in the journal, Plastic and
> Reconstructive Surgery. "Not only can smoking cause prematurity and low
> birth weight, we now believe it can cause this devastating problem as
> well," says co-author Kevin Chung, M.D., M.S., a U-M plastic and
> reconstructive surgeon. "More than 13 percent of the 3.9 million women in
> this study said they smoked, which is troubling by itself, but this new
> evidence makes it even more so 
> 
> Adds co-author Steven Buchman, M.D., director of the Health System's
> Craniofacial Anomalies Program, "There are all sorts of reasons not to
> smoke anyway and this just adds another very important one in the prenatal
> and newborn care of the child. Cleft lip and palate make a huge difference
> in a child's life, and anything that can be done to reduce the risk is
> well worth it." 
> 
> Cleft lip and palate are fairly serious birth defects. They are the fourth
> most common congenital abnormalities, affecting about one in 700 newborns.
> As their names suggest, the deformities are marked by obvious gaps in
> either the lips and nose or the roof of the mouth, due to incomplete
> fusing. Besides affecting a child's appearance, cleft lip and palate
> hinder the ability to breathe, eat, hear and speak. Correcting the defects
> involves many successive operations and years of therapy, but can still
> leave behind scars, speech impediments and emotional damage. 
> 
> The researchers embarked on the study in an attempt to provide more
> definitive information about a suspected possible connection between
> smoking and cleft lip and palate. Prior research elsewhere on smaller
> samples of newborns yielded conflicting results. 
> 
> They gathered their statistics from the 1996 U.S. Natality Database,
> compiled by the National Center for Health Statistics of the Centers for
> Disease Control and Prevention. The database includes information compiled
> by physicians and nurses on each baby, as well as answers from new mothers
> to questions about their education, lifestyle and medical history. The
> 1996 data included 3,891,494 live 
> births in all 50 states, and information on the pregnancy smoking habits
> in all states except California, Indiana, South Dakota and New York
> (excepting New York City). 
> 
> Of the births in states with smoking data, 2,207 babies were recorded as
> having cleft lips, palates or both. Chung and Buchman took a random
> representative sample of 4,414 babies born without birth defects, and
> compared the smoking habits of the babies' mothers. 
> 
> They found that overall, any cigarette use during pregnancy raised the
> risk of cleft lip or palate 55 percent. Mothers-to-be who smoked half a
> pack of cigarettes or less a day had a 50 percent higher risk, while those
> who smoked more than a pack a day had a 78 percent higher risk. 
> 
> When they examined the data further, they found that certain other
> characteristics in the mother or the baby seemed to increase the chance of
> cleft lip or palate. Baby boys and underweight babies born to smoking
> mothers had an increased incidence. So did babies born to mothers who
> smoked and had either diabetes, high blood pressure during pregnancy or
> less than a high school education. Finally, 
> mothers who were not African American or who were less than 27 years old
> were more likely to give birth to a child with a cleft palate or lip. 
> 
> After correcting for all these factors, they still found that smokers were
> 30 percent more likely to have a child with the birth defect, and that the
> rate was still highest among those who smoked the most cigarettes. 
> 
> http://www.pslgroup.com/dg/195182.htm 
>   
> 
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