Airborne toxicants from military burn pits, urban pollution, industrial emissions, and wildfire smoke pose a growing threat to public health, particularly in vulnerable and occupationally exposed populations. Veterans deployed to post-9/11 combat zones, 9/11 first responders, firefighters, and residents in both rural and urban environments have all encountered complex mixtures of particulate matter (PM), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and combustion byproducts. These exposures have been associated not only with respiratory diseases such as asthma, COPD, and constrictive bronchiolitis but also with neurologic and psychiatric conditions including PTSD, cognitive dysfunction, and neurodegeneration. Despite significant attention, translational understanding of how these exposures lead to multisystem injury remains limited, impeding progress in diagnostics, policy, and preventive care.

The goal of this Research Topic is to examine the shared mechanisms and health outcomes resulting from inhalation exposures in occupational and environmental contexts, with an emphasis on the lung–brain axis. We aim to bring together interdisciplinary research that highlights the systemic impacts of airborne toxicants spanning molecular, clinical, and population-level data.
This collection will focus on studies that investigate the pathophysiologic links between respiratory exposures and central nervous system outcomes, the use of preclinical models to simulate complex exposures, and epidemiologic investigations of at-risk populations such as Veterans, firefighters, and pollution-exposed communities. A key aim is to explore how inflammation, oxidative stress, and immune activation mediate disease across organ systems.

Contributors are encouraged to submit original research, reviews, translational studies, or policy-focused commentaries that advance our understanding of multisystem toxicant effects. This topic seeks to foster a more integrated perspective on environmental and occupational health hazards, ultimately supporting better preventive strategies and healthcare delivery for affected populations.

Suitable themes for manuscripts include, but are not limited to:

- Experimental models of burn pit or urban air pollution exposure
- Inflammatory and fibrotic mechanisms in the lung following inhalation toxicant exposure
- Crosstalk between respiratory injury and neuroinflammation (lung–brain axis)
- Epidemiological studies linking exposure to psychiatric and neurologic outcomes in Veterans and first responders
- Histopathologic and imaging studies of airway remodeling and brain changes
- Biomarkers of exposure and systemic inflammation in occupational cohorts
- Community health disparities related to environmental PM exposure
- Policy and clinical strategies for monitoring deployment-related or occupational exposure health impacts
- Translational diagnostics for constrictive bronchiolitis and toxicant-induced lung disease
- Mental health sequelae of toxicant exposure: from inflammation to cognition

Topic Editor Tammy A. Butterick has declared that she is a co-chair of the Burn Pits 360 Scientific Advisory Board, which is a volunteer and unpaid position.

Are you interested in contributing a manuscript to this Research Topic?

Invisible Hazards, Lasting Impact: Airborne Toxicants and Systemic Disease from Environmental and Occupational Exposures