EIRENE (European InfrastRucturE for humaN Exposome) is a pan-European research infrastructure dedicated to understanding how environmental exposures influence human health. This use Case will show how data on toxic compounds (in this case mercury from the GOS4M database), can be combined/contrasted with available air quality (AQ) data and population density data, to provide an overview of exposure hotspots and potential areas at risk from the combined effects of toxic compounds and air pollution. These exposure maps can then be compared to available health data to investigate whether links exist between the combination of exposures, environmental factors (temperature for example), and human well-being.
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Use case description:
The exposome is a concept in environmental health that refers to the totality of environmental exposures an individual experiences from conception onwards. It includes the whole range of exposures throughout life that might influence health not only pollutants, but also factors such as lifestyle, diet, infections, stress, and social environments. The exposome may be considered to be the environmental counterpart to the genome, understanding of both is required to understand health and ill-health.
The EIRENE Use Case will facilitate the development of advanced technologies and complementary services on the characterization of complex environmental exposures, the exposome, and their impact on the European population. This will promote European excellence in Environmental & Health research by providing European researchers with transnational and/or virtual access to harmonised capacities, unique services, and comprehensive data addressing the current and future needs of public authorities.
The Use Case will build on previous European projects and initiatives. EIRENE’s interactions with research infrastructures such as ECRIN, EATRIS, BBMRI, ELIXIR, ACTRIS, or SHARE, create synergies that enhance overall research capacity. The project’s membership in the ENVRI Board, the Life Sciences RI Strategy Board, and the ERIC Forum fosters collaboration and coordination among European RIs, ensuring that EIRENE benefits from shared expertise and strategic alignment. Collaborations with joint programs and partnerships such as HBM4EUand PARChave significantly contributed to the development of necessary capacities, the recognition of harmonized tools and approaches, and their employment in pan-European studies.
Partnerships with European agencies such as EFSA, EChA, EEA, and JRC are crucial to incorporate the exposome concept into regulatory decisions, enhancing the relevance and impact of EIRENE’s research. EIRENE’s involvement with European research clusters EHEN, EURION, ASPIS, CUSP, or IDEAL as well as collaboration with the US initiatives (NEXUS), strengthens its research impact and fosters innovation. Coordination and support actions like IHEN and SPHERA aim to develop a global vision and international cooperation in the exposome field and provide opportunities for global outreach to stakeholders and potential users.
End users and stakeholders
Data providers:
(i) Chemicals:
- Globalt observasjonssystem for Merkur (GOS4M)
- International Human Exposome Network
- Stockholm Convention Global Monitoring Plan Data Warehouse
- European Partnership for the Assessment of Risks from Chemicals (PARC)
(ii) Air Quality data
- Copernicus(specifically Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS))
(iii) Health Data
- EU level data
- World Health Organisation
- Health data description
- Detailed data
- National and regional databases
Objectives/Benefits:
The Use Case, via the GDDS, will provide access to metadata and data regarding health, air quality and exposure to toxins. Data must be temporally and spatially resolved to use statistical tools to investigate possible links and correlations between air quality and both short and long-term health outcomes. The goal is to pass from data to knowledge to understanding and where possible to provide with due scientific rigour, statistically demonstrable causality.
Understanding how exposure to pollution and toxins impacts health status, and thus being able to avoid or reduce the negative effects of exposure leads to a range of benefits.
The step difference which the study of the exposome, compared to traditional toxicological studies is that it allows, given enough data over a long enough time period, the effect of combinations of factors to be evaluated. This then gives a clearer picture of how a poor health status may arise and thus the underlying causes may be more precisely addressed.
In terms of benefits:
- Firstly there is the benefit to the citizen, improved health leads to a better quality of life and a more participatory lifestyle.
- Understanding the exposome allows policy makers to make better informed decisions regarding the safeguards required for any given class of chemical compounds.
- An improved health status of the population as a whole reduces the financial burden of national health services. Where problems can be identified and traced to specific causes it is possible to intervene in a coherent fashion with solutions that directly address a given problem.
- The exposome does not only consider toxic or pollutant stressors on human well-being. Recently, studies have investigated where the environmental quality of a neighborhood has been linked to the greater or lesser use of anxiolytics and antidepressants among the population.
- Research infrastructures, in general, decrease the costs of research by concentrating the skills, expertise, and costly infrastructures to provide excellent services. EIRENE specifically aims at developing high-throughput services for multiresidue screening of biomarkers that can replace time-consuming and costly analytical methods looking for specific groups of chemicals. The same applies to innovative AI-driven tools for data processing, effective data mining, and modelling.
EIRENE also offers numerous options to support data-driven decision-making and policymaking. Harmonized sample and data collection methods, will improve knowledge and understanding of disease etiology, help to identify factors affecting health and enable better prevention. This will also significantly improve the outcomes of the national and European biomonitoring efforts.
Improved data sharing and integration between various human and environmental surveys is another important impact on future infrastructural landscapes, enabling joint interpretation of data across sectors, disciplines, and multiple stakeholders and the development of new prediction models, prevention, and intervention strategies. The outcomes of such efforts will be available to both the scientific community and policymakers to inform evidence-based decision-making for the adequate protection of human health and better healthcare.
Partners/Participants
| Partner | Logo | Country |
|---|---|---|
| INSTITUTE FOR ATMOPHERIC POLLUTION RESEARCH OF THE ITALIAN NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL |  | it |
| CONSIGLIO NAZIONALEDELLE RICERCHE |  | IT |
Expected outcomes/impact:
EIRENE’s mission is to establish a sustainable research infrastructure enabling the advancement of exposome research in Europe by bringing together complementary capacities available in the member states, harmonizing them and upgrading to address current scientific and societal challenges in the areas of chemical exposures and population health.
EIRENE’s vision is to mediate an open access to the infrastructures supporting a world-class research expanding the scientific knowledge in the area of human exposome, supporting the development of new technologies and translation of the research results to the daily lives of citizens via public-private (industry, spin-offs) or public-public (policy-making) partnerships in order to tackle a problem of non- genetic factors behind the development of chronic conditions and to improve the population health.
Contact:
CONSIGLIO NAZIONALE DELLE RICERCHE (CNR-IIA)
