 Smoking during pregnancy remains a major public health problem as at least 12 of pregnant women cannot quit smoking during pregnancy. This addiction is the largest preventable cause of childhood respiratory illness, including asthma, and children whose mothers smoked during pregnancy show lifetime decreases in pulmonary function. Smoking is a unique morbidity in that it is addictive, heavily advertised and recent genome studies show there are genotypes that significantly increase the likelihood of being unable to quit. Teen pregnancy, low income, low education, and living with another smoker are important factors increasing the odds of smoking during pregnancy. Pulmonary function tests done shortly after birth in babies born to mothers who smoked during pregnancy show decreased pulmonary function as measured by decreased respiratory flows and respiratory compliance and altered tidal breathing patterns. These changes can still be measured even after the infants have reached adulthood. Multiple epidemiologic studies show that these decreases in pulmonary function lead to increased respiratory disease and costs of hundreds of millions of dollars per year. 