Occupational exposome

Together with partners, we are working on technology and methods to monitor and interpret these exposures, relate them to health effects and develop effective preventative measures.

The promising potential of the exposome

Many common disorders are closely linked to exposures that range from lifestyle factors to chemical exposures, social interactions and stress. Collectively, these exposures have an enormous impact on health in our society. Because of the complex relationship between exposures and their effects, we are often unable to explain why one person will develop a particular disease, while another will not. The exposome concept helps to bridge this knowledge gap. It provides important insights that form the basis for prevention, such as:

• Why does one person become ill but not another?
• How do different exposures combine to cause health effects?
• What are the first signs of the negative effects of exposure?

Exposome and occupational health

Occupational exposure is an important health factor. People spend a lot of time in the workplace. Exposure at work is often greater and more complex than externally or in the domestic environment. And work is closely linked to lifestyle and behaviour (e.g. diet, exercise, smoking and alcohol consumption), as well as socio-economic status.

We apply the exposome concept to occupational exposure in order to develop evidence-based and effective preventive measures that improve health in the workplace. Here are a few examples:

• We use sensors and sensor-based methodologies to obtain personal exposure profiles throughout the working day. This will give us a better understanding of who is being exposed, where a person is located during higher exposures, and the sources of that exposure.Read more about the Virtual Occupational Hygiene Assisant or watch the video about the Virtual Occupational Hygiene Assistant.
• Other innovative methods enable us to determine internal or external exposure such as point of care biomonitoring or (personal) passive sampling methods.
• We combine data mining of existing toxicological knowledge with internal human exposures and exposure-response information. The aim is to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms that lead to disease, where exposures operate through similar mechanisms, and of vulnerable groups. This contributes to more efficient risk assessment where we can better incorporate all sources of information.
• We coordinate the EU EPHOR project in which a large consortium of EU partners is working to develop and apply methods and techniques to accurately define the ‘working life’ exposome and understand how it relates to health. The resulting methodologies and techniques will be made available to scientists, occupational hygienists, physicians and policy makers via the WeExpose toolbox.

Exposome and urban health

During their lifetime, everyone encounters exposures in the urban environment that may affect their health. Think of air pollution, noise and heat. We are therefore developing methods to better identify such urban exposures based on the combination of sensor measurements and high-resolution (dispersion) modelling:

• In the Eindhoven region, we identify exposure to air pollution on a personal and group level using a large-scale sensor network. We do this in cooperation with industry, local authorities, citizens and knowledge institutions. Read more about measuring air quality for a healthy environment.
• Within the Precision Medicine for More Oxygen (P4O2) consortium, which is coordinated by AMC, we are developing a methodology for analysing the indoor environment of COPD patients. We do this in cooperation with a company that has developed a COPD self-management app. The results will be included in the self-management app, with the aim of better preventing lung attacks.

The immune exposome

Between 15 and 20% of the Western population suffers from an inflammatory disease. Inflammatory processes also play an important role in many other diseases. The immune system is driven by the inflammatory balance. This balance depends on a complex interplay between intrinsic and extrinsic factors, such as chemical and microbial exposures. We are investigating what these important extrinsic factors might be, and the mechanisms through which they (jointly) affect the immune system. This is crucial for the development of safe and effective interventions and control of allergic and inflammatory diseases.

Would you like to participate?

Thanks to our multidisciplinary approach and our own experts, ranging from sensor developers to exposure scientists, and from systems biologists to behavioural scientists, we are able to unravel the exposome. Together with partners from industry and the world of research, we work in partnerships that are essential for moving forward in this field and for developing applications.

We have a strategic partnership for exposome research with the NIOSH in the US, HSE in the UK and the Utrecht Exposome Hub. Would you like to learn more about our exposome activities, or participate? Then please contact us.

Publications

• Personal exposure to UFP in different micro-environments and time of day
• Comparison of Methods for Converting Dylos Particle Number Concentrations to PM2.5 Mass Concentrations
• Calibration of polydimethylsiloxane and polyurethane foam passive air samplers for measuring semi volatile organic compounds using a novel exposure chamber design
• Biomarkers of exposure in environment-wide association studies – Opportunities to decode the exposome using human biomonitoring data
• How Sensors Might Help Define the External Exposome
• Future Prospects of Occupational Exposure Modelling of Substances in the Context of Time-Resolved Sensor Data
• Exposome-based public health interventions for infectious diseases in urban settings
• Ethics and Privacy Considerations Before Deploying Sensor Technologies for Exposure Assessment in the Workplace
• Human biomonitoring in health risk assessment in Europe: Current practices and recommendations for the future | TNO Publications