Health Effects of Early-Life Exposure to Urban Pollutants in Minority Children

The major objective of the proposed research is to study the impact of early-life exposures to common urban pollutants on neurobehavioral development and asthma in a sample of children living in three low-income, minority communities of New York City (Central Harlem, Washington Heights and the South Bronx). Using a molecular epidemiologic approach with monitoring, biomarkers, and clinical assessments at serial time points, we will extend our study of African-American and Latina urban mothers and children in order to follow the cohort through child age 11 years to assess the longer-term impact of exposures on child health and developmental outcomes.

Enrollment eligibility was restricted to nonsmoking pregnant women 18-35 years of age who self-identified as either African American or Dominican and who had resided in northern Manhattan or the South Bronx in New York City for at least 1 year before pregnancy. Women were excluded if they used illicit drugs, had diabetes, hypertension, or known HIV, or had their first prenatal visit after the 20th week of pregnancy.