The associations between parental smoking habits during pregnancy, fam
ily history of allergy, and IgE levels in cord-serum IgE (cIgE) were i
nvestigated prospectively in 1251 infants. Mean cIgE levels were simil
ar in infants with positive and negative family history of allergy (0.
50 and 0.54 kU/l, respectively). In infants with a positive family his
tory of allergy whose mothers smoked more than 10 cigarettes a day, ho
wever, the mean cIgE level was significantly higher (0.78 kU/l) than t
hat in infants of nonsmoking mothers (p = 0.011). Similarly, the mean
cIgE level was significantly higher in boys (0.61 kU/l) than in girls
(0.51 kU/l) of nonsmoking parents (p = 0.03). However, in infants of s
moking parents, there was no significant difference in the mean cIgE l
evel between boys and girls. A total of 178 (14%) mothers and 477 (38%
) fathers were current smokers, and in 128 (10%) cases, both parents w
ere active smokers. The mean cIgE level tended to be slightly higher i
n infants of smoking mothers, especially when the mother consumed more
than 10 cigarettes a day (0.63 vs 0.54 kU/l) (p > 0.05). Thus, cIgE l
evels were higher only in genetically prone babies whose mothers consu
med more than 10 cigarettes a day.