In daily life, individuals are exposed to a wide range of environmental factors such as PFAS, PFOA, phthalates, pesticides, etc. Repeated and prolonged environmental exposures can contribute to pathophysiological changes, thereby influencing the development of diseases over the life course of individuals, eventually leading to premature death. The exposome paradigm is an attempt to focus the attention to the multiple environmental factors affecting health. The exposome was defined as the totality of environmental (non-genetic) exposures, from conception onwards. Thus, in its broad sense, it includes air pollution, noise, temperature, heat, humidity and surrounding green, but also behavioral and socioeconomic characteristics. Air pollution, for example, has been associated with a variety of health endpoints, including cardiovascular and respiratory disease mortality, type-2 diabetes, and neurological diseases. High and low non-optimal temperatures have been ranked as the 2nd environmental risk factor in the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019. On the other hand, surrounding green has been associated with decreased non-accidental and cause-specific mortality. So far, these environmental exposures have been investigated separately. However, single-exposure approaches do not allow disentangling effects of individual factors and fail to detect potential interactions between exposures.
This Research Topic aims to present cutting-edge epidemiological evidence on the impact of air pollution, air temperature/heat, noise, greenness, and humidity on health in a multi-exposure setting. A better understanding of the independent and/or interactive effects of these risk factors is mandatory for designing effective public health prevention strategies especially targeted on vulnerable population subgroups, and promoting urban policies aimed at reducing air pollution concentrations as well as noise and heat levels at the same time.
Environmental epidemiology has historically focused on single environmental stressors from distinct sources. Recently, such assessments have broadened to include impacts of exposure to multiple environmental stressors from various sources to better reflect the complex interplay of these exposures in our daily living environment and to get more insight into their combined adverse and beneficial effects on our health. Moreover, multi-stressor epidemiological models can for example be used to assess benefits of exposure reductions and so help stakeholders and policy makers in their decisions to support a healthy future for all of us. However, currently many vulnerable populations experience elevated exposures to environmental and social stressors, with deleterious effects on their health. Therefore, cumulative approaches e.g. for health risk assessment are needed. Epidemiological models that include in addition to e.g. environmental risk factors, factors of the built environment or their mixtures also stressors such as social factors are a key component in advancing cumulative risk assessment and at the same time potentially addressing health inequities. We therefore welcome all original research articles and narrative as well as systematic review articles and also encourage research letters, short communications and commentaries on the following key scientific themes covered by this research topic.
They can include but are not limited to environmental exposures such as air pollution, air temperature, noise, greenness and humidity and their impact on human health in the context of:
- multi-exposure models or multi-stressor models
- interactive effects of multiple exposures or stressors
- synergistic effects of multiple exposures or stressors
- cumulative risk assessment, e.g. using a cumulative risk index
- effect modification of one exposure or stressor by another exposure or stressor
- mediating effects of one exposure or stressor by another exposure or stressor
We are also interested in submissions identifying particularly vulnerable communities or subpopulations. Global and regional studies emphasizing the health impact in low- and middle-income countries are particularly encouraged.
In daily life, individuals are exposed to a wide range of environmental factors such as PFAS, PFOA, phthalates, pesticides, etc. Repeated and prolonged environmental exposures can contribute to pathophysiological changes, thereby influencing the development of diseases over the life course of individuals, eventually leading to premature death. The exposome paradigm is an attempt to focus the attention to the multiple environmental factors affecting health. The exposome was defined as the totality of environmental (non-genetic) exposures, from conception onwards. Thus, in its broad sense, it includes air pollution, noise, temperature, heat, humidity and surrounding green, but also behavioral and socioeconomic characteristics. Air pollution, for example, has been associated with a variety of health endpoints, including cardiovascular and respiratory disease mortality, type-2 diabetes, and neurological diseases. High and low non-optimal temperatures have been ranked as the 2nd environmental risk factor in the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019. On the other hand, surrounding green has been associated with decreased non-accidental and cause-specific mortality. So far, these environmental exposures have been investigated separately. However, single-exposure approaches do not allow disentangling effects of individual factors and fail to detect potential interactions between exposures.
This Research Topic aims to present cutting-edge epidemiological evidence on the impact of air pollution, air temperature/heat, noise, greenness, and humidity on health in a multi-exposure setting. A better understanding of the independent and/or interactive effects of these risk factors is mandatory for designing effective public health prevention strategies especially targeted on vulnerable population subgroups, and promoting urban policies aimed at reducing air pollution concentrations as well as noise and heat levels at the same time.
Environmental epidemiology has historically focused on single environmental stressors from distinct sources. Recently, such assessments have broadened to include impacts of exposure to multiple environmental stressors from various sources to better reflect the complex interplay of these exposures in our daily living environment and to get more insight into their combined adverse and beneficial effects on our health. Moreover, multi-stressor epidemiological models can for example be used to assess benefits of exposure reductions and so help stakeholders and policy makers in their decisions to support a healthy future for all of us. However, currently many vulnerable populations experience elevated exposures to environmental and social stressors, with deleterious effects on their health. Therefore, cumulative approaches e.g. for health risk assessment are needed. Epidemiological models that include in addition to e.g. environmental risk factors, factors of the built environment or their mixtures also stressors such as social factors are a key component in advancing cumulative risk assessment and at the same time potentially addressing health inequities. We therefore welcome all original research articles and narrative as well as systematic review articles and also encourage research letters, short communications and commentaries on the following key scientific themes covered by this research topic.
They can include but are not limited to environmental exposures such as air pollution, air temperature, noise, greenness and humidity and their impact on human health in the context of:
- multi-exposure models or multi-stressor models
- interactive effects of multiple exposures or stressors
- synergistic effects of multiple exposures or stressors
- cumulative risk assessment, e.g. using a cumulative risk index
- effect modification of one exposure or stressor by another exposure or stressor
- mediating effects of one exposure or stressor by another exposure or stressor
We are also interested in submissions identifying particularly vulnerable communities or subpopulations. Global and regional studies emphasizing the health impact in low- and middle-income countries are particularly encouraged.