A report of Bristol University’s Institute of Child Life and Health shows that in case of nine out of ten cot deaths babies had mothers who smoked during their pregnancy.

Authors Peter Fleming and Dr Peter Blair based their report on analysis and evidence from 21 international studies on smoking and sudden infant death syndrome.

The smokers are often addicted to tobacco. In order to assure that expectant women do not smoke themselves and parents do not smoke near children there is still the problem of the tobacco availability to vulnerable individuals.

In this matter, the study authors advise Government to ban the smoking for pregnant women and to consider the smoking in the presence of expectant women as 'anti-social, potentially dangerous, and unacceptable'.

The report shows that the smoking may affect brain chemicals in the fetus, or could prevent the proper lungs development.

Dr Blair said 'the risk of unexpected infant death is greatly increased by both prenatal and postnatal exposure to tobacco smoke’.

Currently, Government’s advice is that mothers and fathers should cut smoking when women are expectant and smokers should not share a bed with their infant.

Before 1991, laying babies face down during their sleep had been mainly the cause for SIDS. Since then, due to the Back to Sleep campaign, which promoted parents should lay their babies on their backs to sleep, the SIDS has dropped almost three quarters, leaving now smoking as the main cause.

Dr Blair said ‘if all parents stopped smoking tomorrow more than 60 per cent of SIDS deaths would be prevented.'