Wanted: Volunteers, All Pregnant

100,000 pregnant moms wanted for a 21-year study of kids. The world's largest long-term study of the health of children aims to track 100,000 babies until they turn 21.

http://s.nyt.com/u/BGY

Chalk one up for the scientists, who for months have been dispatching door-to-door emissaries across the country to recruit women for an unprecedented undertaking: the largest, most comprehensive long-term study of the health of children, beginning even before they are born.

Authorized by Congress in 2000, the National Children's Study began last January, its projected cost swelling to about $6.7 billion. With several hundred participants so far, it aims to enroll 100,000 pregnant women in 105 counties, then monitor their babies until they turn 21.

It will examine how environment, genes and other factors affect children's health, tackling questions subject to heated debate and misinformation. Does pesticide exposure, for example, cause asthma? Do particular diets or genetic mutations lead to autism?

So much of this will be a waste of time, while a couple of nuggets of insight will pay for everything else.