THE dangers to health caused by smoking are so well documented that you would expect that no-one could be oblivious to them.

So it is all the more concerning that latest figures show that more than 1,200 women in the final stages of pregnancy in the Bradford district continued to class themselves as smokers.

Admittedly, there has been a slight fall year-on-year but the number of Bradford mums-to-be who smoke, is the second highest in West Yorkshire behind Wakefield.

They are, of course, not just jeopardising their own health and lives, but they are causing terrible damage to their unborn babies - not only in the short term, but, as scientific research now proves, for the rest of the child's life.

The district’s public health chiefs admit much work still has to be done to convince pregnant smokers to kick the habit and it has become a key element of their Every Child Matters campaign.

And among the sensible measures being taken to tackle the issue is the creation of a midwifery-based stop smoking service where a specialist midwife will give advice to mums-to-be.

As Shirley Brierley, the consultant in public health for Bradford Council, points out protecting babies from tobacco smoke is one of the best things any mum can do to give their child a healthy start in life and even stopping in the last few weeks of your pregnancy will benefit both mum and baby.

Nobody would expect any pregnant woman would want to deliberately harm their unborn baby's health, but the painful truth is that those who smoke are doing exactly that.

It is to be hoped that their numbers rapidly decline.