Description

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Context:

The study of cumulative environmental exposures and their impact on human health can significantly enhance India’s public health frameworks, especially in light of chronic disease burdens and climate change.

Background:

Traditional environmental health assessments depend on limited pollutant data and retrospective surveys. Along with increasing cases of lifestyle diseases, cancer and respiratory diseases, extensive models are required that measure long -term risk for chemicals, air quality, diet and stress.

This is the place where the exposomics becomes significant - it maps the totality of environmental risks from conception, the disease complements genomics in understanding etiology.

About Exposomics:

It is an area that studies the entire range of environmental risk (pollutants, diet, stress, chemicals) throughout his life. It combines external factors with internal biological reactions using devices such as mass spectrometry, biomarker and AI modeling.

Why does India Need It?

India has a double burden of pollution-related diseases and health monitoring.
Exosomics can help in mapping patterns connecting regional pollution to diseases such as asthma, cancer, or cardiovascular issues.
Especially useful in urban slums and industrial areas where traditional monitoring fails.

Policy framework:

Aspect	Details
Policy Integration Gaps	Focus on curative rather than preventive healthcare in India. Lack of environmental exposure tracking in national health policies.
Data & Infrastructure	No centralized exposure databases. Limited research capacity in environmental health and exposomics.
Potential Integration	National Health Mission (NHM) and Ayushman Bharat could incorporate exposomic tools for early detection and targeted health interventions.
International Examples	United States: NIH’s Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) studies exposure effects from infancy. European Union: Human Exposome Project integrates environment-health datasets for policy design.
Scope for India	Collaborate in global exposome research. Share data and infrastructure. Build national cohorts for early exposure profiling.

Way Forward:

Install National Exposite Research Center under ICMR/CSIR with links from environmental monitoring agencies.
Encourage the interdisciplinary training of health workers in data science, toxic science and environmental health.
Create public awareness at cumulative risks and promote preventive lifestyle practices based on exploitative insight.

Source: The Hindu

PRACTICE QUESTION

Q. Examine the role of exposomics in enhancing environmental health surveillance in India. In what ways can it be incorporated into the country’s public health policy framework? (150 words)