Secondhand smoke hurts female fertility

ROCHESTER, N.Y., Dec. 5 (UPI) -- Women exposed to secondhand smoke, as adults or children, are significantly more likely to face fertility problems and miscarriages, U.S. researchers said.

Scientists at the University of Rochester Medical Center conducted an epidemiologic analysis of more than 4,800 non-smoking women that showed those who were exposed to secondhand smoke six or more hours per day as children and adults faced a 68 percent greater chance of having difficulty getting pregnant and suffering one or more miscarriages.

The study, published online in Tobacco Control, found four out of five women reported exposure to secondhand smoke during their lifetime. Half of the women grew up in a home with smoking parents and nearly two-thirds of them were exposed to some secondhand smoking at the time of the survey.

More than 40 percent of those women had difficulty getting pregnant -- infertility lasting more than a year -- or suffered miscarriages, some repeatedly, the study said.

"These statistics are breathtaking and certainly points to yet another danger of secondhand smoke exposure," Luke J. Peppone of the University of Rochester's James P. Wilmot Cancer Center said in a statement.