Grandma's smoking linked to grandchildren

LOS ANGELES, April 11 (UPI) -- California researchers say a child whose grandmother smoked while pregnant might have double the risk of developing childhood asthma.

A study at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California suggests tobacco's harmful effects on one's lungs can be passed across generations, from grandmother to grandchild, even when the child's mother appears unaffected.

"This is the first study to show that if a woman smokes while she is pregnant, both her children and grandchildren may be more likely to have asthma as a result," said the study's senior author Dr. Frank D. Gilliland. "The findings suggest that smoking could have a longer-lasting impact on families' health than we had ever realized."

The researchers suspect when a pregnant woman smokes, the tobacco might affect her fetus's DNA in the mitochondria, and, if it is a girl, her future reproductive cells as well.

The findings are published in the journal Chest.