title: Nutrition can modulate the toxicity of environmental pollutants: implications in risk assessment and human health.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The paradigm of human risk assessment includes many variables that must be viewed collectively in order to improve human health and prevent chronic disease. The pathology of chronic diseases is complex, however, and may be influenced by exposure to environmental pollutants, a sedentary lifestyle, and poor dietary habits. Much of the emerging evidence suggests that nutrition can modulate the toxicity of environmental pollutants, which may alter human risks associated with toxicant exposures.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  In this commentary, we discuss the basis for recommending that nutrition be considered a critical variable in disease outcomes associated with exposure to environmental pollutants, thus establishing the importance of incorporating nutrition within the context of cumulative risk assessment.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A convincing body of research indicates that nutrition is a modulator of vulnerability to environmental insults; thus, it is timely to consider nutrition as a vital component of human risk assessment. Nutrition may serve as either an agonist or an antagonist (e.g., high-fat foods or foods rich in antioxidants, respectively) of the health impacts associated with exposure to environmental pollutants. Dietary practices and food choices may help explain the large variability observed in human risk assessment.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We recommend that nutrition and dietary practices be incorporated into future environmental research and the development of risk assessment paradigms. Healthful nutrition interventions might be a powerful approach to reduce disease risks associated with many environmental toxic insults and should be considered a variable within the context of cumulative risk assessment and, where appropriate, a potential tool for subsequent risk reduction.
authors.affiliation: University of Kentucky Superfund Research Program, Lexington, Kentucky 40536, USA. bhennig@uky.edu
authors.forename: Bernhard
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Hennig
authors.forename: Lindell
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ormsbee
authors.forename: Craig J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: McClain
authors.forename: Bruce A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Watkins
authors.forename: Bruce
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Blumberg
authors.forename: Leonidas G
authors.initials: LG
authors.lastname: Bachas
authors.forename: Wayne
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Sanderson
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Thompson
authors.forename: William A
authors.initials: WA
authors.lastname: Suk
mesh_terms: D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000009:adverse effects*; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000633:toxicity*; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D009752:Nutritional Status / Q000502:physiology*; D018570:Risk Assessment
chemical_list: D004785:Environmental Pollutants