90% OF COT DEATH BABIES HAVE NICOTINE IN THEIR BLOODSTREAM

A SCANDINAVIAN study has found 90% of all cot death babies have
"significant" level of nicotine in their bloodstream.

The research, conducted by the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, also
found a quarter of all victims had as much nicotine in their bodies as
regular smokers.

The institute published the findings in the US Journal of Paediatrics. They
offer the first direct link between tobacco and Sudden Infant Death
Syndrome, long thought to be connected.

This was the first study of its kind to measure the nicotine levels in the
bodies of infants who had died suddenly. It also offered the first
scientific evidence parental smoking is linked directly to the cot death of
children.

The researchers, led by Dr Joseph Milerad, neonatologist at the Department
of Women and Child Health at the institute, looked at samples of
pericardial fluid, the fluid which is deposited around the heart, from
every child under seven who had died suddenly in the greater Oslo region
between 1990 and 1993.

Dr Milerad and his team took samples from 45 babies, 24 of whom had
suffered SIDS. The others had died from either infection or accident.
Unfortunately, they were unable to compare pericardial fluid of those SIDS
victims and healthy babies, as it is not possible to take the fluid from a
living baby.

The fluid was tested for cotinine, a nicotine component which is produced
as the body metabolises nicotine.

The result of the test gives a fairly healthy indication of the level of
tobacco exposure from between four to eight hours before death.

The evidence was strong enough for Dr Milerad to conclude nicotine did pose
a direct risk to the health of infants. In the past, parents were told not
to smoke around infants to prevent the development of asthma and other
bronchial complaints.

Dr Milerad now believes secondary smoking by infants poses a much greater
danger, saying past studies of rats and unborn babies indicated exposure to
nicotine depresses the body's response to a fall in oxygen and delays
arousal from sleep.

"If you ask mothers whether they smoke near their babies, you get the
answer not so much, but we have shown how strong the link is between
smoking and cot death," Dr Milerard said.

A report released by the Irish Sudden Infant Death Syndrome Association
(ISIDA) earlier this year did say smoking posed a risk factor to infants
with regard to cot deaths, with 80% of Irish parents of cot death victims
smoking.

"The Irish data certainly mirrors the Swedish study," said Prof Tom
Matthews of ISIDA.

Checked-by: Pat Dolan