From San Diego, at the Experimental Biology 2003 meeting
Babies whose moms smoke during pregnancy are five times as likely to die from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) than are nonsmokers’ infants, notes Ralph E. Fregosi of Arizona State University in Tucson. In studies with rodents, he and Zili Luo have now identified a possible explanation: Nicotine exposure in the womb may slow or even stop the firing of respiratory nerves that trigger breaths.
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