This week marks the launching of the largest and most in-depth study of children’s health ever conducted.  To accomplish that mission, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) plans to recruit 100,000 mothers-to-be who will allow their children to be monitored from the time of conception until the child turns 21.  Dubbed the National Children’s Study, it’s been in the planning stage since receiving congressional approval in 2000.

Dr. Philip Landrigan says the study will delve into the “preventable causes of the major chronic diseases that plague American children today.”  He is affiliated with the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and is one of the study’s lead research scientists.

Researchers hope the study will unlock the mystery of how a child’s environment and his or her genetic inheritance affect the way the child develops.  Environmental studies will encompass every phase of the child’s life, from his or her mother’s diet during pregnancy to the everyday chemicals the child is exposed to in the home.

Suggestions have been made that the rising rate of childhood disorders that include birth defects as well as asthma and autism may be linked to environmental factors.  Modern advances in medical and scientific technologies now enable researchers to separate chemical influences, even where multiple chemicals are present, from genetic predisposition to certain diseases.

The hope of determining which environmental factors are harmful and which are not may offer insight into what makes one child vulnerable to a certain illness while another child isn’t affected and may well shed some light on many adult diseases that begin developing during childhood.

Some of the most compelling questions behind the study include:

- Does exposure to certain environmental factors act as a trigger to disease development when a child is genetically inclined toward a particular disease, such as diabetes?

-  Is the presence of foreign elements such as plastic or pesticide in a person’s urine an indicator the person has been harmed by such exposure?

-  Are there key moments in a child’s life that place him or her at heightened risk of harm when exposed to environmental elements?

In the initial phase of study, scientists will target women in the earliest stage of pregnancy or those trying to conceive in Queens (New York City) and in Duplin County, North Carolina.  Queens was chosen because of the crowded borough’s population density and its highly diverse ethnicity.  Duplin County represents small towns where agriculture is predominant.

Recruiting for more study participants will begin in April in California, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, and Utah.  Recruitment is expected to go nationwide by the summer of 2010.

Women enrolled in the study must allow sampling of their hair, blood, and urine and must allow health-based interviews to be conducted throughout their pregnancy.  The water and dust in their homes must be tested as well.  Once the child is born, his or her health will be monitored and the home environment checked at periodic intervals throughout the first year of life, with follow-up evaluations at roughly three-year intervals until the child turns 21.

Researchers will rely on recommendations from prenatal care providers in targeted areas to recruit participants directly and individually for the study and volunteers will most likely be turned away.  To achieve the most concise results, participation is limited to narrowly defined geographic areas already identified during the study’s extensive planning stage.

The first reports generated from the study are anticipated for 2012, when data is expected that will offer insight into circumstances surrounding premature births and birth defects.  New data on early childhood diseases is expected within the first five years of study.