The effects of meat fumes can be hard to separate from the effects of eating the meat itself, but a recent study on pregnant women and barbecuing attempted to tease them out. When meat is grilled, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are also produced, one of the probable carcinogens in cigarette smoke. The researchers discovered that not only was the ingestion of grilled meat in the third trimester associated with smaller birth weights, mothers merely exposed to the fumes tended to give birth to babies with a birth weight deficit. Exposure to the fumes was also associated with a smaller
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