The AP (1/14, Neergaard) reports, "Scientists begin recruiting mothers-to-be in North Carolina and New York this week for the largest study of U.S. children -- aiming eventually to track 100,000 around the country from conception to age 21." After almost 10 years of planning, "the ambitious National Children's Study" will begin tackling "a major mystery: How the environment -- everything from a pregnant woman's diet to a child's exposure to various chemicals -- interacts with genetics to affect youngsters' health and development." Ultimately, it may help researchers to understand "which environmental factors play a role" in illnesses such as "autism, asthma, certain birth defects, and other child disorders" that "are on the rise."

The research effort "is sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, with support from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Environmental Protection Agency," McClatchy (1/14) adds. Participants "will be asked to commit themselves and their children to 38 hours of examinations in the first two years. After that, only the children will be examined every three years." Notably, "participation in the study is limited to pregnant women living in specific areas selected by a mathematical model. Women can't volunteer, but they will be contacted by representatives of the study and given the option to participate." The study will compensate women who participate.

The New York Daily News (1/14, Dillon) reports, "Queens and Duplin County, NC, were chosen as the spearhead locations because they represent the two ends of the study's spectrum, said Barbara Entwisle, principal investigator and director of the Carolina Population Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill." Entwisle explained that "Duplin County is a sparsely populated, proud southern county with 844 births last year." In contrast, "Queens is a densely settled, metropolitan environment with hundreds of languages spoken, and about 30,000 births a year." She further noted that the study "is broadly conceived, focusing on chemical exposure, air pollution, pesticides, nutrition, poverty, crime, [and] genetics." The Daily News pointed out that "Dr. Philip Landrigan at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine will direct the project in Queens."