SummaryIn a British population cigarette smoking during pregnancy increased the late fetal plus neonatal mortality rate by 28% and reduced birth weight by 170 g, and these differences persist even after allowing for a number of "mediating" maternal and social variables. A change in smoking habit by the end of the fourth month of pregnancy places a mother in the risk category appropriate to her changed habit. This evidence should have important implications for health education aimed at getting pregnant mothers to give up smoking.

A stratified 3-stage random sample of 50 360 children ages 0-19 drawn from the whole population of Cuba was measured in a large-scale growth study during 1972-73. Fifteen anthropometric measurements were taken and puberty stages and menarche status were assessed. Hand-wrist radiographs were done on 10% of the sample. Information regarding the social and education status of the parents was obtained and parental heights were measured. One year later, 30% of the sample were re-measured and 10% re-X-rayed. The overall response rate was 96% at pre-school and primary school age, and a lettle less later. Quality control sessions were held at which the nine measuring teams compared results. No significant differences were found between teams working different parts of the island. Differences between duplicate measurements of stature by individual measurers had standard deviations approximating 0.20 cm. Individual measurers' means differed from the grand means of all measurers by up to +/- 0.2 cm for stature, +/- 0.4 cm for sitting height and +/- 0.5 mm (7% of mean) for triceps skinfold. One or more measurements lay outside the 3rd-97th centile limits in 21% of individuals. Scrutiny of these individuals' records resulted in elimination of measurements in amounts ranging from 0.1% (triceps skinfold) to 1.1% (crown-rump length). Problems of planning and execution of growth surveys designed to set national standards are described, and solutions given or suggested.

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(1972). Archives of Disease in Childhood, 47, 373. Growth of radiologicaily determined heart diameter, lung width, and lung length from 5-19 years, with standards for clinical use. Heart diameter, lung width, and lung length have been measured on serial chest radiographs taken at annual intervals on 84 boys and 78 girls who were tuberculosis contacts but free of disease. Most were followed from age 5 or 6 to age 15; some till age 20. Supplementary data were available on 46 boys and 40 girls from the Harpenden Growth Study.Centile standards for these measurements and for lung area (width x length) at ages from 6 to 19 years are presented for clinical use. Mean velocity curves are given over the same age range.The lungs are exceptional in that the adolescent growth spurt is of similar magnitude in both boys and girls, and the girls' mean value does not exceed the boys' mean value in lung width even at the peak of the girls' spurt, as it does in all other body measurements except those of head and feet.The age at peak velocity for lung width and heart diameter coincides with the age for peak height velocity; the peak for lung length occurs about 6 months later than that for lung width.The heart diameter has an adolescent spurt of about equal magnitude in both sexes in these data. At age 6, heart diameter is 78% and 81 % of its adult value, respectively, in boys and girls, compared with figures of 66 to 67% for lung width, 62 to 63% for lung length, and 66 to 67% for height. A wide variation in the level of the diaphragm was found, but by the age of 20 the diaphragm was below the anterior end of the 5th rib in both males and females. In women no case fell below the 6th rib, but in men some 18% fell below it.

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