Abstract

Maternal exposure to tobacco smoke is known to have deleterious effects on the developing fetus, but it has only recently been shown that there may be life-long consequences due to genotoxic damage. Analysis of newborn cord bloods with the GPA somatic mutation assay demonstrates a significant effect of maternal active smoking and suggests that similar mutational induction occurs in mothers who experience only secondary exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS). Moreover, in both cases, mutational induction occurs by the same molecular mechanism, likely chromosome missegregation, resulting in an effective loss of one parental chromosome 4 and duplication of the other. These data also suggest that quitting smoking during pregnancy without actively avoiding secondary ETS exposure is not effective at protecting the unborn child from the genotoxic effects of tobacco smoke.