AsthmaMy five-year-old daughter has asthma I smoked very heavily during my pregnancy. Could this have caused her condition? There is no longer any doubt that the children of mothers who smoke during pregnancy do have substantial disadvantages. In particular, they have a generally lower level of resistance which makes them more likely to get infectious diseases, and they are usually slower to develop both physically and mentally. However, there is no evidence that the presence of asthma in young children can be attributed to the mother smoking when pregnant. The catch-phrase dying for a cigarette’ is brutally apt. fatal smoking-related diseases constitute a genuine epidemic—and one that is solely in the hands of the potential victims to combat.

Smoking the dried leaves of the tobacco plant—in the form of cigarettes, cigars or in pipes—was introduced into England around the middle of the 16th century by explorers and adventurers who had found the practice established in the New World. Consumption of tobacco in the United Kingdom continued to increase till 1973, and then began to fall, but it remains among the most common habits in the western world. Unfortunately it is an extremely dangerous habit with no less than lethal consequences for a very large proportion of those who indulge in it. And it is a very hard one to break.

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