HOSPITAL RECORDS SHOW ALARMING NUMBER OF INFANTS EXPOSED TO COCAINE

CHICAGO - More than one-third of ailing infants brought to an inner-city
hospital emergency room tested positive for cocaine, an indication they were
exposed to cocaine or crack smoke, researchers said Monday.

Children younger than one year old who had been exposed to the drug were
also more likely to suffer from respiratory and other health problems, the
Yale University School of Medicine study said.

The researchers obtained urine samples from 122 randomly selected patients
brought to Yale-New Haven Hospital in New Haven, Conn., between December
1993 and September 1994, and 36 percent tested positive for cocaine.

"Passive exposure to crack/cocaine and the associated clinical symptoms may
present a significant health risk to very young infants and children," study
author Andrew Lustbader wrote in the journal Pediatrics.

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