The Exposome: Embracing the Complexity for Discovery in Environmental Health

Conclusions A decade after the original publication of the exposome concept, followed by years of fruitful discussions on the challenges of implementing it in research, the time is ripe to use the concept to guide study design, to understand the complex nature of exposure, and to embrace that complexity when exploring the relationship between exposure and human health and its underlying mechanisms. It is vital to identify case studies where we can refine and improve epidemiological findings via incorporation of the exposome concept, including expanded exposure measurements, increased understanding of exposure variations across time and space, integration of external measures, biomonitoring and biological response, and comprehensive analysis of the gene environment interplay. One example is the Longitudinal Investigation of Fertility and the Environment (LIFE) study, which examines the relationship between persistent environmental pollutants and fecundity. This study is a prospective cohort of couples who completed daily journals on lifestyle factors and provided biospecimens for assessment of exposure to more than 60 persistent environmental chemicals including organochlorine pesticides, polybrominated diphenyl ethers, PCBs, and perfluorochemicals (PFCs) (Buck Louis et al. 2013). The incorporation of exposure metrics and biospecimens across time makes it a valuable resource to explore the exposome. It is also important to recognize that the exposome approach comprises multipl...
Source: EHP Research - Category: Environmental Health Authors: Tags: Brief Communication August 2016 Source Type: research