Exposome and Health Equity Conference Series across the Life Course

Meharry Medical College, Nashville TN

Investigators

Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY Meharry Medical College and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai are proposing to co‐host a five‐year, in‐person, conference series on the Exposome across the Life Course with an environmental justice lens. This five‐year, conference series will examine the science behind environmental justice. Year one will promote the use of a child exposome and environmental justice lens in research on child health and development with a long‐term goal of advancing health equity and environmental justice. Childhood is a time of rapid growth and differentiation biologically and is radically different than adult biology and behavior. If the timing of a toxic exposure corresponds to a life stage during which growth is particularly rapid, the potential impact of that exposure is multiplied by offsetting the developmental trajectory of the child. For example, low level lead poisoning is most common at age 2‐3 years because of hand to mouth behavior that is normal at this age. In addition, this age is also the peak of synaptic pruning in the developing brain, a process by which environmental inputs shape a child's life long synaptic network of neurons that drive neurocognition and neurobehavior. Children's unique age‐ related patterns of exposure and their developmentally defined windows of susceptibility magnify the long-term health impacts of environmental injustice. Effectively promoting child health and reducing disparities in personal and population‐health outcomes requires an understanding of the pathways through which environmental exposures lead to the onset, progression, and outcomes of disease and population level disparities. While we cannot do much to change our genes, emerging research shows that identifying and managing environmental hazards offers the best hope for prevention and improving population health. This conference will address subsequent life stages (adolescence, young adulthood (including pregnancy, middle age, and older adulthood) in subsequent years.