The parents of a baby boy who died in his cot have been told by a pathologist that their smoking habits may have been a major factor.

At an inquest at Tameside Coroner’s Court, Melanie Newbould, a pathologist, said that she could not be sure why Jake Dunning, seven weeks old, had died but that passive smoking may have played a part.

The evidence follows a study, published this week, that suggests a clear link between passive smoking and cot death.

According to the report by a team from Bristol University, almost nine out of ten mothers who lose a baby to cot death, smoked while pregnant. The risk increases with every hour that babies are exposed to passive smoke after birth.

John Pollard, the coroner, was told that when Rachel Dean went to wake her son at 8.40am on May 31, she found that he had a purple rash on his face, blood coming from his nose and he was not breathing. In spite of attempts to resuscitate him he died shortly after he was admitted to Tameside Hospital, in Greater Manchester.

Jake’s mother and father, Ryan Dunning, both in their twenties, were distraught about the findings.
A verdict of death by natural causes was recorded.
 
By Russell Jenkins
The Times