Pesticides And Parkinson s Disease In The Agricultural H

Environmental Health Sciences

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

The Norwegian Mother and Child study is a cohort study of pregnant women and their children in Norway. NIEHS is contributing to this effort by creating of a biological specimen repository to evaluate environmental exposures and health effects to pregnant women and their unborn children. As of July 31, 2006, 51,472 women had contributed biological samples (blood and urine) for the NIEHS portion of the study; 16,000 women were enrolled this fiscal year. These samples have been collected at 41 hospitals across Norway including urban centers and the Arctic regions. The enrollment target is 100,000 women. At the current recruitment rate we anticipate 80,000 women with blood and urine samples collected at 17 weeks gestation to evaluate for environmental exposures by the end of 2007.[unreadable] [unreadable] During the past fiscal year, we published a manuscript on issues related to urine storage and environmental exposures (phenols, phthalates, non-persistent pesticides) and have a manuscript in press regarding the biological specimen bank. In collaboration with Norwegian investigators, we are implementing a quality assurance experiment and protocol to assess storage conditions for a variety of parameter. Results of the initial quality assurance measures were presented at a professional meeting in October 2004 and a manuscript is currently in preparation.