Unit | Environmental Exposures and Health

Our continuous interaction with the environment can affect our health in both positive or negative ways. Researchers in the Environmental Exposures and Health unit develop and integrate novel tools and methods to investigate the health effects of a wide range of environmental exposures. These include transportation noise, ionising and non-ionising radiation, ambient and indoor air pollution, environmental tobacco exposure, pesticides and climate change, including heatwaves.

From Exposure Assessment to Effective Public Health

Our unit conducts epidemiological studies in children, adolescents and adults. Current studies are dealing with health-related quality of life, behaviour, respiratory diseases, childhood tumours, cardiovascular diseases, and neurodegenerative diseases. We also perform health risk assessments, including meta-analyses and systematic reviews, and contribute to the development of guidelines and regulatory limits in the field of environmental health.

The ETAIN project takes a planetary health approach to study the effects of electromagnetic field (RF-EMF) exposure from current and emerging wireless technologies. It develops tools such as an open-access Citizen Science smartphone app to map and model exposure across Europe and explores biological effects on humans and insects, including skin, eyes and pollinators. The findings will inform health, environmental and regulatory policies. Read more

This collaboration consists of four projects: (i) a cohort study on the effects of agricultural pesticides on the development and respiratory health of rural children; (ii) a cohort study on the effects of ambient air pollutants on childhood asthma; (iii) an ecosystem approach to the health risks associated with chemical pollution and biological contamination of water sources and soils; (iv) a health risk assessment of the impact of climate change on ecosystems, water and chemical usages. Read more