What samples are we collecting? Which ones are optional?

1. Newborn Dried Blood Spot

In BC and Yukon, newborn dried blood spots are collected at birth for all newborns to test for rare or serious disorders through the Newborn Screening Program.  Usually, 4 spots are collected and 1-2 are used for testing while the extra blood spots are kept for up to ten years in case of future use.

These dried blood spots provide valuable biological information for approved health research studies, including DNA markers that may help researchers understand how environmental and early-life exposures (such as Wildfire smoke) affect a child’s health and development.

The BC Wildfire Study has received approval from BC Children’s Hospital and the University of British Columbia’s board of ethics to use these samples for our research. 

2. Oral Buccal Swab

Providing a buccal swab sample of your child is an optional part of the BC Wildfire Study.

Buccal swabs, also known as cheek swabs, involve using a swab to rub the inside of your child’s cheek and enclosing it in a prepaid envelope to be mailed back to our laboratory. It is a non-invasive, painless, and self-administered method to collect DNA. DNA and certain proteins related to inflammation can change based on the environment a child grows up in. Collecting current samples will allow researchers to measure such changes and make further comparisons to samples collected at birth.

When biological samples are used in health research, they are de-identified and assigned a study number to anonymize them. This ensures that any identifying information such as name, personal health number, or date of birth are removed to protect each individual’s privacy.

Read more about our study’s Data Storage and Privacy.