[ACTIVE AND SECONDHAND (PASSIVE) SMOKING DURING PREGNANCY]

Quite a few people of both genders are still smoking today, although their number is decreasing in the developed countries. In Israel, people who smoke constitute 22% of the adult population and the ratio between male and female smokers is 4:1. Jewish women smoke 1.8 times more in comparison with Arab women. Smoking is known to constrict small blood vessels and hence there exists a more prevalent outcome of prematurity and small-for-gestational-age fetus in pregnant women who are exposed to secondhand (passive) smoking during their pregnancy. In the relevant literature, it is claimed that secondhand smoking is responsible for delivery at early stages, as well as low birth weight of newborns for women who were exposed to it. However, these findings were not found as such in a number of studies in which the question of a relation between passive smoking and adverse pregnancy outcomes was not proven. Moreover, exposure to passive smoking by other smokers is considered only one of the many pollutants that exist in our industrial and overcrowded world, hence focusing on that one variable only ignores the effect of many other pollutants that may possibly do harm to the fetus as well as to the pregnant woman. The relation between passive smoking and adverse effects on the fetus leads to the restriction of smoking in public places with no evident proof of its benefit on pregnant women.