Apart from damaging the lungs of people world over, a new study has reached the conclusion that smoking during pregnancy can result in children having a criminal bent later on in life. The research has appeared in the publication, Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

The study also found that women, who smoked more than a pack of cigarettes everyday, were more likely to have children, who were arrested in their adulthood. It was also concluded that the likelihood of getting arrested during adulthood among children whose mothers smoked during pregnancy increased by 30%.

The study involved an examination of data related to 3,766 people in order to understand the impact of smoking during pregnancy on the developmental process of an offspring. The women in question were interviewed from 1959 to 1966, a time when smoking was not considered bad for health of a child during pregnancy.

A follow-up of the study was conducted in the year 1999 and 2000, a time when all the children had reached adulthood. It was found by researchers that apart from having an increased probability of getting arrested, people born to women, who smoked heavily during pregnancy were also more likely to be arrested on more than one occasion.

Lead Author, Angela Pardis from the Harvard School of Public Health stated that they wanted to check the behavior among the people in adulthood as people during teenage years were more likely to behave in an anti-social manner.