Fetal Nicotine or Cocaine Exposure:
Which One is Worse?

(7/20/98)

Dear Friends,

A number of articles hit the news the past several months regarding smoking and SIDS. More information follows. We have received many e-mail messages asking for more information. The public has been on an information roller coaster, the result of an explosion of medical reports, each heralding a "breakthrough in SIDS research." We need to help people separate myth from fact and risk factor from cause. We will post information as it becomes available to us.

Please keep the following in mind:

- When it comes to media coverage of SIDS, we often feel a sense of frustration in being confronted with misleading headlines, announcements of so-called breakthroughs and statements taken out of context.

- Please read the article, "Mass Media's" Role in SIDS Education, at <http://sids-network.org/media.htm>.

We are currently gathering more information about this specific research and will keep you updated.

Thanks!

Chuck Mihalko
Executive Manager
SIDS Network

Update: 9/16/98

Dr.Theodore Slotkin, Ph.D., Professor, Dept. of Pharmacology & Cancer Biology, Duke University Medical Center, has been in contact with the SIDS Network and has offered to answer any questions about their research or the specific article below.

Thank you Dr. SLotkin.
t.slotkin@duke.edu

Health Risk To "Cigarette Babies" Is Neglected, Duke Scientist Charges: news (Science Daily posted 8 June 1998, source DUke University)

Fetal Nicotine or Cocaine Exposure: Which One is Worse?: Article (Theodore A. Slotkin, from the June 1998 Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics)