There can be few people today who do not accept that smoking tobacco kills - and where it doesn't kill quickly, it leads to long, lingering illnesses prior to an early grave.

There are any number of campaigns about the dangers of smoking, and increasing regulation has banned smoking in pubs, on public transport, and even in cars where children are travelling.

However, even those who have the full information about the shocking damage that smoking causes are, in our free society, entitled to behave as they wish within the law, even if all evidence and common-sense points to what they are doing as foolish in the extreme.

Where the "it's a free country" defence collapses completely, though, is when women insist on smoking while pregnant - and latest figures show that the number of expectant mothers continuing to smoke into the late stages of pregnancy is actually on the rise.

In parts of the district, almost one in five mums-to-be smoke when heavily pregnant, for which there can be absolutely no excuses.

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

Is there any loving mother who truly wants to give their child such a bad start in life, with the dubious "gift" of the health problems that smoking bestows?

It is hard to believe that so many Bradford women could be so callous, and rather are ignorant about just how much damage they are causing their children. Hopefully, though, these latest figures might make them sit up and take notice - before it's too late.