The environment impacts human health in profound ways, yet few theories define the form of the relationship between human physiology and the environment. It is conjectured that such complex systems cannot interact directly, but rather their interaction requires the formation of an intermediary “interface.” This position contrasts with current epidemiological constructs of causation, which implicitly assume that two complex systems transfer information directly while remaining separate entities. Further, it is contended that dynamic, process‐based interfaces incorporate components from all the interacting (...) systems but exhibit operational independence. This property has many consequences, the foremost being that characteristics of the interface cannot be fully resolved by only studying the systems involved in the interaction. The interface itself must be the subject of inquiry. Without refocusing the attention on biodynamic interfaces, how the environment impacts health cannot be discerned. Also see the video abstract here https://youtu.be/XeyjeZeyo4o. (shrink)

Graphical AbstractWe can, for example, understand intimately how the human endocrine systems works, and likewise the chemical nature of compounds present in our environment; but the result of the interaction cannot be deduced from any simple combination of the two knowledge sets: it's not the interacting entities that we should be studying, but the process that creates the phenomena that we witness as a result of this interaction. This is the “biodynamic interface” to which Manish Arora, Alessandro Giuliani and Paul (...) Curtin refer in their article in this issue, and it is a conceptual structure that comes into being upon interaction of entities: a new way to study interactions in complex systems and better understand emergent phenomena. (shrink)

It is estimated that 300,000 children 0–14 years of age are diagnosed with cancer worldwide each year. While the absolute risk of cancer in children is low, it is the leading cause of death due to disease in children in high‐income countries. In spite of this, the etiologies of pediatric cancer are largely unknown. Environmental exposures have long been thought to play an etiologic role. However, to date, there are few well‐established environmental risk factors for pediatric malignancies, likely due to (...) technical barriers in collecting biological samples prospectively in pediatric populations for direct measurements. In this review, we propose the use of novel or underutilized biospecimens (dried blood spots and teeth) and molecular approaches for exposure assessment (epigenetics, metabolomics, and somatic mutational profiles). Future epidemiologic studies of pediatric cancer should incorporate novel exposure assessment methodologies, data on molecular features of tumors, and a more complete assessment of gene‐environment interactions. (shrink)

Air pollution is a major global challenge for a multitude of reasons. As a specific concern, there is now compelling evidence demonstrating a causal relationship between exposure to airborne pollutants and the onset of cardiovascular disease (CVD). As such, reducing air pollution as a means to decrease cardiovascular morbidity and mortality should be a global health priority. This review provides an overview of the cardiovascular effects of air pollution and uses two major events of 2020—the Australian bushfires and COVID‐19 pandemic (...) lockdown—to illustrate the relationship between air pollution and CVD. The bushfires highlight the substantial human and economic costs associated with elevations in air pollution. Conversely, the COVID‐19‐related lockdowns demonstrated that stringent measures are effective at reducing airborne pollutants, which in turn resulted in a potential reduction in cardiovascular events. Perhaps one positive to come out of 2020 will be the recognition that tough measures are effective at reducing air pollution and that these measures have the potential to stop thousands of deaths from CVD. (shrink)