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The Exposome: A New Framework for the Practice of
Environmental Health
by Melanie Pearson, PhD, Emory University
Dr. Pearson was born and raised in Georgia. She graduated from Fayette County
High School, received her bachelor’s degree from Clemson University, and her
graduate degrees from the University of Missouri-Columbia. She returned to Atlanta
to work as an environmental scientist, managing two longitudinal environmental
exposures studies, publishing scholarly articles, and working with a local community
to address environmental concerns and implement an alternative approach to
pesticide applications for their municipal sports fields. Through this work, Dr.
Pearson developed a strong interest in community-engaged research, playing a primary role in implementing
and conducting community-based initiatives for three NIH-funded research centers.
Dr. Pearson currently works with a state-wide community of farmers, former chemical workers, residents,
and their children who continue to suffer from an industrial mix-up that led to polybrominated biphenyls
(PBB) being mixed into livestock feed, resulting in the contamination of food products distributed throughout
the state of Michigan in the 1970s. Dr. Pearson also co-leads the Community Outreach and Engagement
Core of the Emory HERCULES Exposome Research Center, working closely with Atlanta-communities to
learn the environmental health concerns of the greater Atlanta community, facilitate community-academic
collaborations, and support the community in its capacity to address its environmental health concerns.
As environmental health practitioners, we are it adequately represent the importance of the
familiar with the multitude of exposures we face as environment in human health and disease. The
humans in our chemical world. The complexity is concept of an “exposome” includes all of the
extraordinary. Heavy metals, air pollutants, external forces acting on our bodies and the
pesticides, plasticizers, components of tobacco responses of the body to these forces over time. The
smoke, and flame retardants are among the many term was coined to capture the complexity and
environmental chemicals detectable in our bodies. totality of our exposures, and the cumulative effects.
The challenge is how to define and measure the
There is variability in the "dose" and mixture of exposome and how to integrate and analyze the
exposures between each person and within a person
at different time points. Each individual's biological multitude of data necessary.
response to an environmental exposure differs. In
fact, an individual's biological response can vary HERCULES, Emory
based on their age (developmental stage), genetics,
diet, exposures to infectious agents, psychological *HERCULES: University's newly established
factors, and societal factors.
Health and Exposome Research Center,
Despite the complexity, all of these forces
combine to impact human health and must be Exposome aims to provide key
considered together to accurately predict health/
disease risk and develop effective interventions to Research infrastructure and expertise to
improve human health. The traditional approach of
examining one chemical exposure at a time does not Center: develop and refine new tools
reflect the reality of the human experience, nor can
Understanding a and technologies to elucidate
the exposome. The exposome
Lifetime of
will require contributions from
ExposureS
multiple disciplines within
environmental health sciences (e.g. epidemiology,
exposure science, and toxicology) genetics,
behavioral science, nutritional sciences, and frfom
*HERCULES: is funded by the National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences
16 Georgia Environmentalist Volume 36
Environmental Health
by Melanie Pearson, PhD, Emory University
Dr. Pearson was born and raised in Georgia. She graduated from Fayette County
High School, received her bachelor’s degree from Clemson University, and her
graduate degrees from the University of Missouri-Columbia. She returned to Atlanta
to work as an environmental scientist, managing two longitudinal environmental
exposures studies, publishing scholarly articles, and working with a local community
to address environmental concerns and implement an alternative approach to
pesticide applications for their municipal sports fields. Through this work, Dr.
Pearson developed a strong interest in community-engaged research, playing a primary role in implementing
and conducting community-based initiatives for three NIH-funded research centers.
Dr. Pearson currently works with a state-wide community of farmers, former chemical workers, residents,
and their children who continue to suffer from an industrial mix-up that led to polybrominated biphenyls
(PBB) being mixed into livestock feed, resulting in the contamination of food products distributed throughout
the state of Michigan in the 1970s. Dr. Pearson also co-leads the Community Outreach and Engagement
Core of the Emory HERCULES Exposome Research Center, working closely with Atlanta-communities to
learn the environmental health concerns of the greater Atlanta community, facilitate community-academic
collaborations, and support the community in its capacity to address its environmental health concerns.
As environmental health practitioners, we are it adequately represent the importance of the
familiar with the multitude of exposures we face as environment in human health and disease. The
humans in our chemical world. The complexity is concept of an “exposome” includes all of the
extraordinary. Heavy metals, air pollutants, external forces acting on our bodies and the
pesticides, plasticizers, components of tobacco responses of the body to these forces over time. The
smoke, and flame retardants are among the many term was coined to capture the complexity and
environmental chemicals detectable in our bodies. totality of our exposures, and the cumulative effects.
The challenge is how to define and measure the
There is variability in the "dose" and mixture of exposome and how to integrate and analyze the
exposures between each person and within a person
at different time points. Each individual's biological multitude of data necessary.
response to an environmental exposure differs. In
fact, an individual's biological response can vary HERCULES, Emory
based on their age (developmental stage), genetics,
diet, exposures to infectious agents, psychological *HERCULES: University's newly established
factors, and societal factors.
Health and Exposome Research Center,
Despite the complexity, all of these forces
combine to impact human health and must be Exposome aims to provide key
considered together to accurately predict health/
disease risk and develop effective interventions to Research infrastructure and expertise to
improve human health. The traditional approach of
examining one chemical exposure at a time does not Center: develop and refine new tools
reflect the reality of the human experience, nor can
Understanding a and technologies to elucidate
the exposome. The exposome
Lifetime of
will require contributions from
ExposureS
multiple disciplines within
environmental health sciences (e.g. epidemiology,
exposure science, and toxicology) genetics,
behavioral science, nutritional sciences, and frfom
*HERCULES: is funded by the National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences
16 Georgia Environmentalist Volume 36
