Rio Birth Cohort Study on Environmental Exposure and Childhood Development - PIPA Project.

Background/objective: As a developing country, Brazil presents a wide range of environmental risks that can constitute hazards to child health. The country also presents different socio-economic-cultural conditions that could be responsible for determining different vulnerability and susceptibility levels for the population, which can potentiate the effects of the environmental pollutants. The Rio Birth Cohort Study (PIPA project) is a prospective maternal-infant health study, hosted in the city of Rio de Janeiro (Southeastern Brazil), designed to investigate separate and combined effects of environmental chemical pollutants, as well as the interactions between these exposures and sociocultural environment and epigenetic patterns.