Measuring Prenatal Tobacco Exposure in Newborn Blood Spots

Project Timeline: 7/1/2008-6/30/2011

Research on the health effects of prenatal exposure to active and secondhand smoking during pregnancy is hampered by the inability to precisely measure active and secondhand smoking in pregnancy. Sequoia Foundation’s approach for this study was to measure cotinine and hemoglobin adducts in stored newborn blood and validate with cotinine in umbilical cord blood and mid-pregnancy maternal blood.

Sequoia Foundation conducted data analysis on all laboratory results and documented the evaluation of whether cotinine and hemoglobin adducts in newborn blood spots can be used as biomarkers of prenatal tobacco exposure for future studies.