With the changes in our lifestyles and the development of synthetic chemistry, exposure to environmental contaminants has become multiple and complex. Pregnancy and the early years of life are recognized as being periods of high sensitivity to environmental factors, with potential lifetime health consequences for the child.
The exposome, a concept defined as encompassing all environmental exposures from conception onwards, offers a new paradigm in environmental health research. As part of the European Human Early-Life Exposome (Helix) project, a team has assessed, using an exposome approach, the association between prenatal and postnatal environmental exposures and forced expiratory volume in 1s (FEV₁) in children between 6 and 12 years of age. Dr. Valérie Siroux, respiratory epidemiologist at Inserm (French Institute for Health and Medical Research) and study lead, presented and discussed the results for this analysis, published in the Lancet Planetary Health, in the general framework of the exposome approach.
Featured Speaker
Valérie Siroux, PhD, is a respiratory epidemiologist at Inserm (French Institute for Health and Medical Research) in Grenoble, France. Her research aims at identifying the environmental, genetic and epigenetic factors influencing the respiratory health, in children and adults. She has a background in statistics and epidemiology and has experience in sophisticated statistical analysis including the analysis of genetic and exposome data. She is the principal investigator of the Epidemiological Study on the Genetics and Environment of Asthma (EGEA) and of the health axis of a new-generation mother child cohort (SEPAGES). She is part of an Inserm team in “Environmental epidemiology applied to reproduction and respiratory health” (PI: R Slama), whose specific focus is the influence of early life (intra-uterine and early postnatal) environmental exposures on the health of the foetus and the child (Developmental Origins of Health and Diseases, or DOHaD, concept). In that context, the team is particularly interested in the effects of atmospheric pollutants, short half-lived endocrine disruptors (phenols, phthalates) and, more recently, the exposome as a whole. Valérie Siroux was involved in several European projects; in the EU-FP7 ESCAPE “European Study of Cohorts for Air Pollution Effects” program, she co-led the analysis on adult-onset asthma. She led the work package on air pollution in the EU-FP7 SYSCLAD “Systems prediction of Chronic Lung Allograft Dysfunction," and more recently the exposome-lung function association study in the EU-FP7 HELIX “the Human Early-Life eXposome."
This webinar is one in a monthly series sponsored by the Collaborative on Health and the Environment’s EDC Strategies Partnership. The CHE EDC Strategies Partnership is chaired by Carol Kwiatkowski and Katie Pelch (TEDX), Sharyle Patton (Commonweal Biomonitoring Resource Center), Jerry Heindel (Commonweal HEEDS, Healthy Environment and Endocrine Disruptor Strategies), and Genon Jensen (HEAL) and coordinated by Maria Williams (Collaborative on Health and the Environment, a Commonweal program). To see a full list of past calls and webinars related to EDCs and listen to or view recordings, please visit our partnership page.
This webinar was moderated by Genon Jensen, Executive Director of Health and Environment Alliance (HEAL). It lasted for 30 minutes and was recorded for our call and webinar archive.