Irish Times (Apr 10, 06:43 AM) Does a pregnant woman's exposure to certain chemicals put her child at risk of learning disabilities? Do genetics and pollution interact to cause asthma? Researchers in the US will be seeking answers to such questions in what is billed as the largest ever study of American children.
Up to 100,000 children will be tracked from their mothers' wombs to the age of 21 in an attempt to increase our understanding of how the environment affects children's health. Called the National Children's Study, it's a quest to prove both what's harmful and what's not. The study is currently in the late planning stages and researchers hope pilot sites could begin next year.
Families alerted by interested patient-advocacy groups are already asking how to participate. The estimated cost of the study over two decades is $27 billion. The last major American child health study, carried out in the 1960s, tracked children of 55,000 pregnant women until the age of seven.
