Cutting The Cord To Determine Babies' Health Risk From Toxic Exposure
Thursday, December 4, 2008 - 17:42
in Health & Medicine
Despite the well-known dangers of first- and secondhand smoke, an estimated ten percent of pregnant women in the US are smokers. Now, in the first study of its kind, a team of researchers has completed a global assessment of newborns' umbilical cord blood to provide the first assessment of proteins detectable in infant blood and to identify possible molecular predictors, or biomarkers, of fetal health risks from smoking mothers.