Fed: Inutero smoking boosts asthma risk, but only in girls

AAP General News (Australia)
04-13-2006
Fed: Inutero smoking boosts asthma risk, but only in girls

Australian researchers have found teenage girls whose mothers smoked heavily in pregnancy
.. are twice as likely to have asthma as those with mums who didn't smoke.

But the study of almost 4000 children .. followed since before their births in the
early 1980s .. found no such link for boys.

ROSA ALATI .. who conducted the research with colleagues at the University of Queensland
.. says the reasons for the gender difference are unclear.

But the earlier onset of puberty in girls or their smaller lung size may be possible
explanations.

AAP RTV jhm/jv/tm

KEYWORD: ASTHMA (BRISBANE)

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