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Lbw Essay

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It has come to light more recently about the health hazards that are associated with inhaling second-hand smoke. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2017), secondhand smoke can cause numbers of diseases and conditions including stroke, lung cancer, coronary heart disease, sudden infant death syndrome, and low birth weight. The study conducted by Pogodina, Brunner Huber, Racine, and Platonova (2009), focuses on the connection between environmental tobacco exposure (ETS) and the risk of having a low birth weight (LBW) infants. After conducting the study the researchers came to the conclusion that infants were at greater risk of LBW when their mothers were exposed to ETS by one residential cigarette smoker, but even greater risk when exposed to ETS by two or more residential cigarette smokers. Women who almost smoked in the three months leading up to birth had a greater risk of having a LBW infant. The results of the study lend well to the 7 criteria created by Sir Austin Bradford Hill describing causality in epidemiology. Hill’s criteria include strength, consistency, specificity, temporality, biological gradient, plausibility, and coherence (Friis, 2012).

Criteria for Causality

Strength
Strength of association is one of the seven criteria Hill listed when …show more content…

Plausibility is demonstrated in the introduction of the article. Pogodina et al. (2009) confirm the hazards of exposure to ETS. ETS consists of numerous harmful chemicals such as tar, nicotine, carbon monoxide, and carbon dioxide. The CDC estimates that the 90% of non-smokers in the United States have been exposed to ETS. the primary exposure point for infants and children is the home. While the amount of homes going smoke-free has increased 43.2% to 66% from 1992-1993 to 2001-2002, millions of American households are still at risk of residential ETS exposure (Pogodina et al.,

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