50% of pregnant women exposed to cigarette smoke

Most pregnant women exposed to secondhand smoke in Taiwan face it at home, particularly at night, but others still must contend with secondhand smoke in the workplace, according to the survey, the largest of its kind in 20 years.

The survey, in which 2,346 pregnant women answered questionnaires and had their blood tested periodically, was conducted by National Taiwan University Hospital for the Cabinet-level Department of Health (DOH). The blood tests found that pregnant women in Taiwan lack iron, folic acid, vitamin A and vitamin B in their diets, even in the initial stages of their pregnancies, and the situation gets worse as the pregnancy progresses.

By the third trimester, many of the pregnant women had a 4 percent deficiency of folic acid, a 37 percent deficiency of vitamin B, and a 14 percent deficiency of vitamin B2. They also had major iron deficiencies, with some of the women in the trial having iron levels 50 percent lower than accepted standards.

The survey identified other flaws in the participants' diets. It found that local pregnant women ingest only 52 percent of the daily recommended amount of 7.4 mg of Vitamin E and only half of the 522 mg of calcium recommended per day.

The average amount of 4.9 c.c. of dietary fiber consumed every day by Taiwan's pregnant females also falls short of the recommended amount by between 17 percent and 32 percent.

As 60 percent of Taiwanese pregnant women also work and usually eat outside, Shaw Ning-sing, the National Taiwan University professor who was in charge of the survey, recommended they take fish oil and other mineral supplements to complement the nutrients they get from their diets.

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