The Children's Health Exposure Analysis Resource: enabling research into the environmental influences on children's health outcomes

Abstract

Purpose of review The Children's Health Exposure Analysis Resource (CHEAR) is a new infrastructure supported by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to expand the ability of children's health researchers to include analysis of environmental exposures in their research and to incorporate the emerging concept of the exposome. Recent findings There is extensive discussion of the potential of the exposome to advance understanding of the totality of environmental influences on human health. Children's health is a logical choice to demonstrate the exposome concept due to the extensive existing knowledge of individual environmental exposures affecting normal health and development and the short latency between exposures and observable phenotypes. Achieving this demonstration will require access to extensive analytical capabilities to measure a suite of exposures through traditional biomonitoring approaches and to cross-validate these with emerging exposomic approaches. Summary CHEAR is a full-service exposure assessment resource, linking up-front consultation with both laboratory and data analysis. Analyses of biological samples are intended to enhance studies by including targeted analysis of specific exposures and untargeted analysis of small molecules associated with phenotypic endpoints. Services provided by CHEAR are made available without cost but require a brief application and adherence to policies detailed on the CHEAR webpage at https://chearprogram.org/.

Urinary trace metals individually and in mixtures in association with preterm birth

“…Urine samples from the visit at median 26 weeks gestation were analyzed at NSF International (Ann Arbor, MI, USA) as part of a pilot study for the Children’s Health and Exposure Assessment Resource (CHEAR), a program designed to expand resources for analyzing environmental exposures in NIH-funded studies on children’s health (Balshaw et al 2017; NIEHS 2018). Seventeen trace metals were analyzed on a Thermo Fisher (Waltham, MA, USA) ICAPRQ inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICPMS) and CETAC ASX-520 autosampler, including As, barium (Ba), beryllium (Be), Cd, copper (Cu), chromium (Cr), mercury (Hg), manganese (Mn), molybdenum (Mo), nickel (Ni), Pb, selenium (Se), tin (Sn), thallium (Tl), uranium (U), tungsten (W), and zinc (Zn).…”

The Pediatric Cell Atlas: Defining the Growth Phase of Human Development at Single-Cell Resolution

“…Many chronic diseases that affect specific tissues, such as diabetes, asthma, and neuropsychiatric disorders, often first manifest in childhood or adolescence. Environmental exposures during development, the so-called exposome, may have long-term effects on children’s and adult’s health and tissue function at the cellular level (Balshaw et al, 2017, Vineis et al, 2017), especially during specific developmental windows (Dietert et al, 2000). Neuroimmunologic cell and tissue responses to lower socioeconomic status, stress, inflammation, and air pollution may be linked to observed health disparities (Olvera Alvarez et al, 2018).…”

Environmental Health Research in Africa: Important Progress and Promising Opportunities

“…Some reports were limited by exposure assessment methods (perhaps relying too heavily on questionnaires to assess exposure and health risks). Leveraging resources such as the Children's Health Exposure Analysis Resource (CHEAR) or Human Health Exposure Analysis Resource (HHEAR) (Balshaw et al, 2017) may enable critical gains in environmental exposure measurements in biospecimens collected in African studies. Increased environmental data in coordination with genomic infrastructure such as that in the H3Africa consortium offers a strong platform for building G x E research in Africa, although collaborations should not be limited to these resources alone.…”