Mother's smoking revealed in baby's first full diaper!

A certain substance called meconium revealed in a baby's first full diaper can be used to determine how much the mother smoked or how much smoke she inhaled or was exposed to during pregnancy. This theory was brought up by researchers in a journal known as Environmental Health where they tested meconium sampels in 337 babies. In addition, a man named Joe Braun from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and his team furthered this study by finding the time span of how much mother smoked and the amount of smoke she was exposed to by using this experiment. And as expected, the results were higher for those who were active smokers whereas those who were secondhand smokers. In addition, Joe Braun concluded the study by saying, "Although meconium was not superior to serum as a biomarker of tobacco smoke exposure, it may be useful to estimate gestational exposure to other environmental toxicants that exhibit more variability during pregnancy, especially non-persistent compounds like bisphenol A and phthalates."

As technology, science, and biology progress and new findings are discovered overtime, they also try to maintain healthy habits. The first and obvious use of science mentioned in this article would be the word "meconium" and the result it had for the study found. Science is used in order to experiment this discovery and also use it as a health warning in relation to tobacco smoke and how newborns are affected by it.

The ugly truth is out! This article can help us stay aware and on top of new discoveries and possibly makes us want to continue learning more about this. Maybe this awareness can help us with anything that might have happened to any relatives or friends or what could happen in the future. A newborn's immune system is so delicate and it's not fair that it could be affected by something like this. Therefore, this study allows a better understanding on this topic to help us for anything personal, similar to this.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100827082153.htm