Examining our environmental exposures could turn the tables on chronic diseases

This week researchers are gathering at the launch of the Human Exposome Project in Washington which will map environmental exposures that impact human health

Four people die every single day in Ireland from pollution in the air that we breathe, with many more people admitted to hospital, putting a huge additional burden on our health services. File picture

How many times have we heard it from older people “there was no such thing as that when we were growing up,” be it multiple sclerosis, Crohn’s disease, or motor neuron disease, the list goes on and on.

Is it the case that these conditions only arise because people are living longer, because we've learned how to diagnose them, or is it because we are exposed to environmental factors that our grandparents were not exposed to? Is it our genes or where we live or what we eat?