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IMAGE: associate director for population science and interim co-leader of the Cancer Prevention and Control program at VCU Massey Cancer Center view more
Credit: VCU Massey Cancer Center
Nearly a quarter of pregnant women say they ve been around secondhand smoke - in their homes, at work, around a friend or relative - which, according to new research, is linked to epigenetic changes - meaning changes to how genes are regulated rather than changes to the genetic code itself - in babies that could raise the risk of developmental disorders and cancer.
The study, published today in
Environmental Health Perspectives by researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center, is the first to connect secondhand smoke during pregnancy with epigenetic modifications to disease-related genes, measured at birth, which supports the idea that many adult diseases have their origins in environmental exposures - such as stress, poor nutrition, pollution or toba