ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Children and Health
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1580316
This article is part of the Research TopicPrenatal Environmental and Genetic Interactions: An Exploration from Fetal Development to Child HealthView all 9 articles
Prenatal Environmental Tobacco Smoke Exposure: A Predictor of Blood Selenium Levels in Children
Provisionally accepted
- 1Wroclaw Medical University, Wrocław, Poland
- 2Wroclaw University of Health and Sport Sciences, Wroclaw, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, Poland
- 3Medical University of Silesia, Katowice, Silesian, Poland
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The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between prenatal environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) exposure and blood selenium concentration (Se-B) in a selected group of children. A total of 299 children were recruited for this study. Prenatal ETS exposure (understood as active as well as passive mother's exposure) was assessed among all the study participants using a standardized exposure scale. The participants were tested for Se-B. Se-B was statistically significantly lower in the group of children with prenatal exposure to ETS compared to those without prenatal exposure. Similarly, children whose mothers actively smoked tobacco during pregnancy exhibited lower Se-B than children whose mothers did not smoke, and a similar trend was observed for passive smokers. While negative correlations were observed between the severity of ETS exposure and Se-B, these results were not statistically significant. Independent risk factors for lower Se-B included advanced age, body weight deficiency, and prenatal ETS exposure. This study highlights the association between maternal tobacco smoke exposure during pregnancy and reduced selenium levels in offspring, emphasizing the importance of targeted interventions in prenatal care to minimize ETS exposure.
Keywords: Active smoking, Environmental tobacco smoke, passive smoking, Prenatal exposure, selenium blood concentration
Received: 11 Apr 2025; Accepted: 08 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Gac, Fułek, Żórawik, Poręba, Pawlas and Pawlas. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Pawel Gac, Wroclaw Medical University, Wrocław, Poland
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