Funded Programs

Partnership in Air Quality and Children's Health in China

Emory's Rollins School of Public Health is partnering with Peking University Health Science Center and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) National Center for Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities on an environmental health study in China. With the rapid development of its economy in recent years, China is undergoing a transformation on a scale never before experienced. The environmental changes accompanying this transformation must be addressed given their potential for profound public health and ecological impacts. This collaborative pilot project will investigate the connection between motor vehicle exposure and the development of childhood asthma in Wujian County, China. This site is involved in the China-U.S. Collaborative Project for Neural Tube Defect Prevention that will be the target of a wave of research follow-up activities in 2008. With 12,000 children ages 12-14 being followed up, this study will be sufficiently powered to make scientific contributions of its own regarding the pathogenesis of asthma, and will also serve as a pilot for components that can be added to the framework of the China Children and Families Study, a major new prospective cohort study of 300,000 children and their families scheduled to begin in July 2009. This pilot study will place Emory researchers in a good position to support the addition of environmental health components to this larger prospective cohort study, and will thus, foster a long-term collaboration with Chinese partners on environmental health concerns.

For more information, contact:
Paige Tolbert, PhD
Professor and Chair
Rollins School of Public Health
ptolber@sph.emory.edu