Environ Health PerspectEnvironmental Health Perspectives0091-6765126766291241458Research ArticleThe National Children's Study of environmental effects on child health and development.BranumAmy MCollmanGwen WCorreaAdolfoKeimSarah AKesselWoodieKimmelCarole AKlebanoffMark ALongneckerMatthew PMendolaPaulineRigasMarcSelevanSherry GScheidtPeter CSchoendorfKennethSmith-KhuriEleanorYeargin-AllsoppMarshalynNational Children's Study Interagency Coordinating Committee, Centers for Disease Control and PreventionNational Children's Study Interagency Coordinating Committee, National Institute of Environmental Health SciencesNational Children's Study Interagency Coordinating Committee, National Institute of Child Health and Human DevelopmentNational Children's Study Interagency Coordinating Committee, U.S. Environmental Protection AgencyInfant and Child Health Studies Branch, National Center for Health Studies, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Hyattsville, MD, USA.420031114642646

Increasing recognition that children may be more susceptible than adults to environmental exposures and that they experience potentially life-long consequences of such exposures has led to widespread support for a large new cohort study in the United States. In this article, we propose a framework for a new cohort study of children, with follow-up beginning before birth and continuing to age 21 years. We also describe the administrative structure that has been built to develop the proposal further. The structure includes a partnership between federal and nonfederal scientists and relies on a collaborative, interdisciplinary research effort of unprecedented scale in medical research. We discuss briefly how the proposed cohort could be used to examine, among many other things, the effect of chemical contaminants in breast milk on children's health and development.