Ishitsuka, K., Nakayama, S. F., Kishi, R., Mori, C., Yamagata, Z., Ohya, Y., Kawamoto, T., & Kamijima, M.; “Japan Environment and Children’s Study: backgrounds, activities, and future directions in global perspectives;” Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine, 2017, 22(1), 61; DOI: 10.1186/s12199-017-0667-y.

ABSTRACT:

There is worldwide concern about the effects of environmental factors on children’s health and development. The Miami Declaration was signed at the G8 Environment Ministers Meeting in 1997 to promote children’s environmental health research. The following ministerial meetings continued to emphasize the need to foster children’s research. In response to such a worldwide movement, the Ministry of the Environment, Japan (MOE), launched a nationwide birth cohort study with 100,000 pairs of mothers and children, namely, the Japan Environment and Children’s Study (JECS), in 2010. Other countries have also started or planned large-scale studies focusing on children’s environmental health issues. The MOE initiated dialogue among those countries and groups to discuss and share the various processes, protocols, knowledge, and techniques for future harmonization and data pooling among such studies. The MOE formed the JECS International Liaison Committee in 2011, which plays a primary role in promoting the international collaboration between JECS and the other children’s environmental health research projects and partnership with other countries. This review article aims to present activities that JECS has developed. As one of the committee’s activities, a workshop and four international symposia were held between 2011 and 2015 in Japan. In these conferences, international researchers and government officials, including those from the World Health Organization, have made presentations on their own birth cohort studies and health policies. In 2015, the MOE hosted the International Advisory Board meeting and received constructive comments and recommendations from the board. JECS is a founding member of the Environment and Child Health International Birth Cohort Group, and has discussed harmonization of exposure and outcome measurements with member parties, which will make it possible to compare and further combine data from different studies, considering the diversity in the measurements of variables between the studies. JECS is expected to contribute to the international environmental health research community and policy-making. More international collaboration would enhance our understanding of the possible environmental causes of diseases and disabilities.  FULL TEXT

Hashimoto, K., Yasumura, S., Fujimori, K., Kyozuka, H., Wakaki, Y., Sato, A., Hanzawa, H., Yokoyama, T., Sato, T., & Hosoya, M.; “The Japan Environment and Children’s Study (JECS) in Fukushima Prefecture-A progress report on the enrollment stage;” Fukushima Journal of Medical Science, 2017, 63(2), 57-63; DOI: 10.5387/fms.2016-17.

ABSTRACT:

The Japan Environment and Children’s Study is an ongoing nationwide birth cohort study that is being conducted at 15 regional centers throughout Japan. The recruitment of subjects in the study area within Fukushima Prefecture, which includes Fukushima City, Minami Soma City and Futaba County, was begun on January 31, 2011 with the cooperation of the obstetrics and gynecology departments of local medical institutions. On March 11, soon after the start of recruitment, the Tohoku region was hit by an unprecedented disaster in the shape of the Great East Japan Earthquake, which was closely followed by the Tokyo Electric Power Company’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident. As a result of the disaster, the study area in Fukushima Prefecture was expanded on October 1, 2012 to include 59 municipalities across Fukushima Prefecture. Three points are seen as particularly important: 1) Radiation risk communication, 2) The motto is “Be attentive. Be supportive.”, and 3) Establishing cooperating partnerships. With the cooperation of all concerned, the recruitment period ended on March 31, 2014. The tentative total number of the participants enrolled at the Fukushima Regional Center was 34,666 (13,134 pregnant mothers, 8,695 fathers and 12,837 children born before November 30, 2014 as of June 2016). FULL TEXT

Etzel, Ruth, Charles, Marie-Aline, Dellarco, Michael, Gajeski, Katie, Jöckel, Karl-Heinz, Hirschfeld, Steven, Kamijima, Michihiro, Kawamoto, Toshihiro, Kolossa-Gehring, Marike, Nakayama, Shoji, Schmidt, Börge, Tian, Ying, Wolz, Birgit, Zaros, Cécile, & Zhang, Jun; “Harmonizing Biomarker Measurements in Longitudinal Studies of Children’s Health and the Environment;” Biomonitoring, 2014, 1(1), 50-62; DOI: 10.2478/bimo-2014-0006.

ABSTRACT:

Large scale studies of environmental influences on children’s health and development are being planned or conducted in many places, including Japan, France, Shanghai (China), the United States, and Germany. The objective of these “next generation” studies is to better understand a broad range of environmental and social factors that influence the health and well-being of children. Some of these studies are designed to enroll tens of thousands of children and follow them for many years to investigate the influence of the environment on child growth, development and health. Environment is broadly defined in these studies and includes investigation of chemical, biological, physical and socioeconomic factors. An international group composed of study teams from Japan, France, Shanghai (China), the United States, and Germany has been meeting since 2011 to exchange information and work towards harmonization of processes that would provide the opportunity to compare methods and develop procedures to conduct combined analyses of results and data pooling procedures. Harmonization of infant health outcomes, biomarkers, environmental measurements, socioeconomic and migration status has been initiated. This manuscript provides an overview of the Environment and Child Health International Birth Cohort Group and its history, describes the progress of work, and discusses the advantages of this international collaborative effort. FULL TEXT