The environment we live in has a dominant impact on our health. It explains an estimated 70% of the chronic disease
burden. Since most aspects of our environment are modifiable, this provides a huge potential for disease prevention.
Leading scientists in Europe and the USA have formalised this perspective as the Exposome concept. Derived from
the term exposure, the Exposome is the characterisation of the non-genetic drivers of health and disease. Interacting
with the genome, it defines individual health. The Exposome comprises aspects of the Built environment
(characteristics of where we live); the Social environment (with whom we interact, social networks and income); the
Physico-Chemical environment (chemical substances we are exposed to) and the Lifestyle/Food environment (what
we eat, how much we exercise). Studying the Exposome requires consideration of:
• The multitude of interrelated individual exposures: the specific external Exposome;
• The wider behavioural and social context in which these exposures occur: the general external Exposome; and
• Their impact inside the human body: the internal Exposome.

• dr. Simon Scheider

EXPANSE is a five-year European research project that focuses on the urban exposome and involves 20 academic and non-academic partners located in 14 European countries and the USA. The project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 874627 and is coordinated by Utrecht University. We are part of the human exposome network, the world’s largest network of projects studying the impact of environmental exposure on human health. For more information see: www.expanseproject.eu

• dr. J.J. (Jelle) Vlaanderen
• dr. R.W.R. (Robert) van Vorstenbosch MSc