Health Consequences of Environmental Exposures: Causal Thinking in Global Environmental Epidemiology.
The 2010 Global Burden of Disease estimates indicate a trend toward increasing years lived with disability from chronic noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). Risk factors examined included smoking, diet, alcohol, drug abuse, and physical inactivity. By contrast, little consideration was given to accumulating evidence that exposures to environmental chemicals, psychosocial stress, and malnutrition during fetal development and across the life span also increase risk of NCDs. To address this gap, we undertook a narrative review of early-life environmental contributions to disease. We documented numerous etiologic associations. We propose that future GBD estimates use an expanded approach for assessing etiologic contributions of environmental exposures to recognized disease risk factors. We argue that broadening the definition of environmental disease, together with improved methods of assessing early life exposures and their health outcomes across the life span, will allow better understanding of causal associations and provide the incentives required to support strategies to control avoidable exposures and reduce disease risk.
Children's Health and Environment Program, Queensland Children's Medical Research Institute, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. Electronic address: p.sly@uq.edu.au.
Peter D
PD
Sly
Institute for Health and the Environment, University at Albany, Rensselaer, NY.
David O
DO
Carpenter
Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences, University of Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Martin
M
Van den Berg
Centro Infant, Biomedical Research Institute, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
Renato T
RT
Stein
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY.
Philip J
PJ
Landrigan
The Department of Public Health, Environmental and Social Determinants of Health, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland.
Marie-Noel
MN
Brune-Drisse
Hazardous Substances Research Branch; Superfund Research Program, National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health, Research Triangle Park, NC.
William
W
Suk
D006233:Persons with Disabilities; D004781:Environmental Exposure; D004782:Environmental Health; D014943:Global Health; D006801:Humans; D012307:Risk Factors
burden of disease; children; non-communicable disease; pollution; public health