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Paul J. Lioy,¹ Sastry S. Isukapalli,¹ Leonardo Trasande,² Lorna Thorpe,³ Michael Dellarco,⁴ Clifford Weisel,¹ Panos G. Georgopoulos,¹ Christopher Yung,¹ Margot Brown,⁴ and Philip J. Landrigan²

¹Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute, University of Medicine and Dentistry, New Jersey–Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and Rutgers University, Piscataway, New Jersey, USA; ²Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, New York, USA; ³New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, New York, New York, USA; ⁴National Children’s Study, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Bethesda, Maryland, USA

Abstract
Objective: The National Children’s Study is a long-term epidemiologic study of 100,000 children from 105 locations across the United States. It will require information on a large number of environmental variables to address its core hypotheses. The resources available to collect actual home and personal exposure samples are limited, with most of the home sampling completed on periodic visits and the personal sampling generally limited to biomonitoring. To fill major data gaps, extant data will be required for each study location. The Queens Vanguard Center has examined the extent of those needs and the types of data that are generally and possibly locally available.

Data: In this review we identify three levels of data—national, state and county—and local data and information sets (levels 1–3, respectively) , each with different degrees of availability and completeness, that can be used as a starting point for the extant data collection in each study location over time. We present an example on the use of this tiered approach, to tailor the data needs for Queens County and to provide general guidance for application to other NCS locations.

Conclusions: Preexisting and continually evolving databases are available for use in the NCS to characterize exposure. The three levels of data we identified will be used to test a method for developing exposure indices for segments and homes during the pilot phase of NCS, as outlined in this article.

Key words: children, environmental measurements, EXIS, exposure index, exposure information system, microinventories, National Children’s Study, national databases, NCS. Environ Health Perspect 117:1494–1504 (2009) . doi:10.1289/ehp.0900623 available via http://dx.doi.org/ [Online 15 June 2009]

Address correspondence to P.J. Lioy, EOHSI, 170 Frelinghuysen Rd., Piscataway, NJ 08854 USA. Telephone: (732) 445-0155. Fax: (732) 445-0116. E-mail: plioy@eohsi.rutgers.edu

Supplemental Material is available online (doi:10.1289/ehp.0900623.S1 via http://dx.doi.org/) .

We thank L. Everett of the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute for editorial and technical assistance.

The authors are investigators in the Queens Vanguard Center, National Children’s Study (NCS) . The project is funded in whole or in part by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, under contract HHSN275200503411C/N01-HD-5-3411. P.J.L., P.G.G., S.S.I, C.W., and C.Y. are also supported in part by the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences–sponsored University of Medicine and Dentistry New Jersey Center for Environmental Exposures and Disease (grant P30ES005022) .

The content of this publication does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Department of Health and Human Services, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. government.

P.J. Landrigan is the principal investigator of the New York–northern New Jersey location of the NCS, and all of the authors derive a portion of their income from NCS funding.

Received 28 January 2009 ; accepted 15 June 2009.

Correction

In the manuscript originally published online, the U.S. EPA NATA data were from 1999 ; these data have been updated in text and Figure 5 to 2002.