Study: father's smoking before conception may raise asthma risk in kids

Men who smoke could give their unborn baby asthma, even he quits years before the birth, a new study revealed on Monday at the European Respiratory Society International Congress in Munich, Germany.

Norwegian researchers analyzed the smoking habits of more than 13,000 men and women, and then looked at the incidence of asthma in their children. The result suggested that a baby had a greater risk of asthma if their father smoked before they were conceived.

The study suggested that the risk of asthma increased if a father smoked before the age of 15, and the longer the father smoked, the greater the risk of their baby developing asthma.

No link was found between the mother's smoking before conception and a child's asthma.

The findings of the new study add to growing evidence which suggests that poor health can be recorded in a father's sperm or a mother's eggs.

"It is important for policymakers to focus on interventions targeting young men and warning them of the dangers of smoking and other exposures to their unborn children in the future," said Dr. Cecile Svanes of the University of Bergen in Norway.

(Agencies)