Challenges to studying the health effects of early life environmental chemical exposures on children’s health

Abstract

Epidemiological studies play an important role in quantifying how early life environmental chemical exposures influence the risk of childhood diseases. These studies face at least four major challenges that can produce noise when trying to identify signals of associations between chemical exposure and childhood health. Challenges include accurately estimating chemical exposure, confounding from causes of both exposure and disease, identifying periods of heightened vulnerability to chemical exposures, and determining the effects of chemical mixtures. We provide recommendations that will aid in identifying these signals with more precision.