The Children’s Health Exposure Analysis Resource, or CHEAR, is a program funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to advance understanding about how the environment impacts children’s health and development over the course of a lifetime. CHEAR provides researchers interested in linking early life exposures to health outcomes access to laboratory analysis of environmental exposures and data analysis consultation at no cost to the investigator.
CHEAR is designed to expand the range of environmental exposures assessed in NIH-funded children’s health studies, including:
- Studies wishing to expand their analysis to include environmental exposure analysis or assessments of interactions between genes and the environment
- Studies that have collected environmental exposure data but seek more extensive analysis
Exposures measured by CHEAR will cover the breadth of the “exposome,” which encompasses all environmental exposures including chemical, physical, and biological stressors, as well as lifestyle and social environments, from conception through adolescence. Only exposures that can be measured through laboratory analysis of human samples will be addressed.
CHEAR is composed of three components:
A National Exposure Assessment Laboratory Network, providing both targeted and untargeted environmental exposure and biological response analyses in human samples
A Data Repository, Analysis, and Science Center, providing statistical services, a data repository, and data standards for integration and sharing
A Coordinating Center, connecting the research community to CHEAR resources
Learn how to work with CHEAR.