Dr. Myers started his seminar talking about smoking while pregnant and the things that can happen to the baby as a resultant of this situation. The main problem with smoking while pregnant is that the baby gets less food and oxygen if a woman smokes while pregnant than if a woman doesn't smoke while pregnant. He also explained the risks that come with smoking while being pregnant and here are a few listed:
- Stillborn baby
- Premature birth
- Miscarriage
- Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)
- Low birth-weight babies
He then went into talking about tobacoo and the chemical make-up and the many types of diseases that occur from smoking. Tobacco is composed of 4,000 chemicals and cause multiple types of cancers including lip, esophagus, pancreas, lung and kidney cancer. Many respiratory diseases that can also occur are tuberculosis, pnuemonia, influenza, bronchitis and asthma. Other health consequences that occur are:
- a 60% increase in risk of developing lower respiratory illness
- impaired lung function
- increase of frequency of middle ear infections
Dr. Myers then discussed the biomarker aspect to the tobacco and why someone would want to study it. A biomarker is a molecular, biochemical, or cellular alterations that are measurable in biological media, such as human tissues, cells or fluids. He then explained that the reasoning for someone studying biomarkers are to find the many chemicals, mutagens and carcinogens found in tobacco. There are three criteria that must be met for a biomarker to be useful and they are:
1. Specificity
- direct result of chemical or contaminent
2. Sensitivity
- earliest detectable change
3. Practicality
- cheaper way to get answer
Dr. Myers was a very informative speaker and I really enjoyed the seminar and being able to speak with him after the seminar. During the seminar he talked about a compound that is found in tobacco smoke and it is called 4-aminobiphenol. The structure is below
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