Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - June 15, 1978, Winnipeg, Manitoba Smoking danger risk to baby Little deterrent by Manfred j acer people find it so hard to that pregnant women often cant be persuaded to even if it risks har Ming their unborn babies for life or killing them before or during Sharon a University of Toronto Public health research said and Public health nurses dont feel like laying the scare trip on Tripp not Only is this Likely to increase their anxiety and make them smoke two cigarettes instead of but nurses by and Large see their role in being As supportive As they scaring people Doest really fit in with in addressing the joint conventions of the Canadian lung association and the Canadian thoracic society at the convention Tripp was speaking to the for none of the 400odd therapists and administrators attending outlining smoking effects in women of childbearing age and their unborn she said about a third of All Canadian women of childbearing age to 44 years and the greatest and most recent increase has occurred among girls Between 15 and with smoking increases of per cent in 1965 and per cent in american and British studies show women Over 30 who smoke and use the birth control Pill run seven times the risk of fatal heart attacks than women who take the Pill but dont women who smoke Are Likely to undergo Meno pause earlier than the More a woman the earlier her change of life will babies of women who smoke during pregnancy weigh six to eight ounces less than those of Are half an Inch Shorter and later Are slow in Reading and expecting mothers who smoke run almost twice the risk of losing their baby before Tripp told the convention both nicotine and Carbon the main constituents of tobacco seem responsible for pregnancy nicotine constricts blood thereby harming unborn babies in four she said by decreasing the mothers the two chemicals Likely contribute to fetal growth by constricting blood vessels in the they diminish blood supplies to the unborn by causing death of cells around the edges of the they probably Lead to Placenta the cause of perinatal by reducing fetal breathing they pre vent the baby from strengthening its breathing Muscles in preparation for real thus leading to higher incidence of respiratory Tripp told the convention even secondhand smoke inhaled by babies of parents who smoke after the child is born does do babies of parents who smoke Are More prone to pneumonia and bronchitis in the first year of life than Are babies of nonsmoking this is probably because they Are breathing in irritants from their parents cigarette especially in enclosed accumulated smoke in a room significantly in creases the Carbon monoxide level in an infants blood with resulting increases in heart rate and blood Tripp people often react with denial or anger to Public health admonitions to Stop smoking during pregnancy or even before the research consultant she said pregnant women make comments such As its too late in my pregnancy to make any differ Why didst someone Tell us All this at the beginning of pregnancy if quitting is so Why didst my doctor Tell me not to smoke some women interviewed in an antismoking Campaign during pregnancy in Toronto told nurses they knew babies of smokers might be smaller but a Small baby was what they Tripp others called cigarettes my one Tripp said the slogan do you want a cigarette More than you want your baby will not necessarily keep a woman from smoking but will Likely increase her guilt and anxiety while she is cigarette smoking decline observed there is some evidence that cigarette consumption across Canada is Margaret be Klake of Mcgill University medical school said speaking during the convention of the Canadian lung a professor in Mcgills epidemiology said the percentage of regu Lar smokers among men declined to 48 from 58 Between 1965 and while the decline for women was to 32 per cent from 33 per cent in the same the rate of decline is she probably partly because Many Young people Start she said it was depressing to note that 32 per cent of boys aged 15 to 19 and 28 per cent of the girls the same age Are regular smokers an increase from 1960 Winnipeg Survey figures indicating Only 25 per cent of boys and 16 per cent of girls smoked regularly be Klake referred to the reality of How Little Impact our antismoking campaigns she said the reasons suggested at an american thoracic society panel in Boston last month were the tendency to dramatize for effect rather than allow the facts to exaggeration of effects which May not be biologically Lack of specific information on the 600 or so chemicals in tobacco and impotence when people Are asked Why me close to 50 per cent of Canadian men but even among smokers Only one in 100 Dies of lung what protects the other 99 for every 100 smokers perhaps five will suffer heart attacks and but the number for nonsmokers is per Many women who smoke have perfectly healthy Man needs to have his risks More precisely and i put it to you that the medical scientific question of individual susceptibility to the health effects of smoking is surely the most obvious 1980 target for search and be Klake she said information on the extraordinary selectivity of smoking related respiratory diseases will provide important insights into smoking mechanisms and could Point to answers in treating such we mkt Juki just fill out an application at furniture Villa instant and present Drivers License or any valid credit youll have on the toot audit instant ;