exposure-assessment

Exposure Assessment

Exposures to environmental variables such as air pollution, green space, conflict, etc., affect global human health. The collection of these environmental, non-genetic drivers of health and disease over one's lifetime is called the exposome (Wild, 2005). 16% of all deaths worldwide can be attributed to air, water, and soil pollution alone, which is likely still a gross underestimation (Landrigan et al., 2018), highlighting the relevance of quantifying and mapping environmental exposures.

In environmental risk and epidemiology research, it is largely recognized that the impact of the environment on human and other living beings consists of the compounding effects of multiple variables, not just the sum of individual exposures (Ward et al., 2022; Dimakopoulou et al., 2024). Most multivariable exposure assessments are based on small-scale case studies within single countries or cities, limiting their ability to capture the full global range of environmental and societal conditions.

Therefore, we aim to map a multitude of environmental attributes at high resolution (<1 km²) on a global scale. The contribution of the GEESE dataspace is twofold:

  • Mapping global spatial patterns of environmental exposures and their implications for environmental equity.
  • Providing global environmental exposure data and tools to support research on the exposome and its potential links to health and disease.

References

  1. Dimakopoulou K, Nobile F, de Bont J, et al. Disentangling associations between multiple environmental exposures and all-cause mortality: an analysis of European administrative and traditional cohorts. Front Epidemiol. 2024;3:1328188. Link.
  2. Landrigan PJ, Fuller R, Acosta NJR, et al. The Lancet Commission on pollution and health. Lancet 2018;391:462–512. Link.
  3. Ward PJ, Daniell J, Duncan M, et al. Invited perspectives: A research agenda towards disaster risk management pathways in multi-(hazard-) risk assessment. Nat Hazards Earth Syst Sci 2022;22:1487–1497.
  4. Wild CP. Complementing the Genome with an “Exposome”: The Outstanding Challenge of Environmental Exposure Measurement in Molecular Epidemiology. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2005;14(8):1847–1850. Link.