As
in many Canadian cities, babies born to mothers who live in socially
and materially poorer parts of Vancouver are more likely to be born too
small than babies born in other parts of the city. We know that there
are more smokers in poorer areas, and so it is possible that active and
passive smoking are some reasons for the differences in birth outcomes
in different parts of the city. We will test passive smoking by
measuring cotinine, a byproduct of nicotine, in serum (blood) samples
from non-smoking pregnant women. We will then investigate whether
non-smoking women with higher levels of serum cotinine (and thus with
higher passive smoke exposures) are more likely to have a baby that is
too small. We will also test whether some babies are genetically more
susceptible to adverse effects of passive smoke during pregnancy.
Finally, we will test whether non-smoking pregnant women who live in
poorer areas of Vancouver have higher levels of serum cotinine compared
to others, which would suggest that they were exposed to more passive
smoke. Taken together, our study will provide good evidence for whether
reducing exposures to passive smoke would reduce the disparities in how
likely a baby is to be born too small in poorer and richer areas.
