[Pollution and smoking in pregnant women]

For nine months the pregnant woman, and indirectly her fetus, is exposed to an aerosol composed of different pollutants. With some of these, as for smoking, it has been possible to define objectively and statistically an alteration of the health status and of the satisfactory outcome of pregnancy; with others it has not been possible at present to define a dose relation effect or a threshold of risk. In this study, known connections were studied between pregnancy and smoking (specific risks, perinatal mortality, childhood cancer and breastfeeding), industrial pollution and particularly those related to lead, fertilisers and pesticides, opiates and cannabis derivatives (in particular their effect on reproductive function), radioactivity and its correlation with the genetic code and the risk of cancer and pollution by micro-organisms. If these risks exist, even it they are not all assessable objectively, the short term action of the most benefit is certainly a change in individual behaviour, for example with tobacco consumption.