Secondhand smoke damages babies' lungs.

• Position: Respiratory Ailments - Brief article

In unprecedented biochemical and anatomical detail, researchers at the University of California, Davis, have described how cigarette smoke damages the lungs of unborn and newborn children.

The findings illustrate with increased urgency the dangers that smokers' families and friends face, and should give pediatricians helpful new insight into the precise hidden physical changes occurring in their young patients' lungs, maintains Kent Pinkerton, a professor for the Center for Health and the Environment.

"Smoke exposure causes significant damage and lasting consequences in newborns," he insists. "This research has a message for every parent: Do not smoke or breathe secondhand smoke while you are pregnant. Do not let your children breathe secondhand smoke after they are born."

Pinkerton adds that the results from this study are further proof that secondhand smoke's effects on kids are not minor, temporary, or reversible. "This is the missed message about secondhand smoke and children," he stresses. "Parents need to understand that these effects will not go away. If children do not grow healthy lungs...