2 July 2024
The International Human Exposome Network (IHEN) is bringing together researchers, policymakers, and independent experts to collaborate on and improve exposome research. This field explores how health is shaped by the combined impact of all the environmental factors people are exposed to throughout their lives.
"Now is a critical moment to enhance global coordination, support, and implementation of exposome research", says Roel Vermeulen Professor at Utrecht University and IHEN project Co-coordinator. "Given the vast and borderless nature of our environmental challenges, both present and future, it is imperative that we collaborate internationally to make a meaningful impact on public health."
The environment we live in has a dominant impact on our health. It explains an estimated seventy percent of the chronic disease burden. Where we live, what we eat, how much we exercise, the air we breathe and whom we associate with; all of these environmental factors play a role. The combination of these factors over the life course is called the exposome. There is general (scientific) consensus that understanding more about the exposome will help explain the current burden of disease and that it provides entry points for prevention and ...
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