Environmental and Occupational Epidemiology Principles

Occupational epidemiology studies the distribution of health events and health related determinants and its relation to the working environment. Environmental epidemiology focuses on the involuntary exposure to physical and chemical factors in the indoor or outdoor environment that may affect health patterns. Occupational and environmental epidemiology use similar methodology although the conditions differ. The environmental epidemiology studies beyond the health effect of exposure to specific environmental factors and must consider the long-term impact of the ecosystems to nearby populations. Molecular technologies allow the detection of effects at the molecular level originated by very low levels of exposure. The concept of an exposome is a kind of database with information concerning environmental exposure measurements in a life time and corresponding biomarkers concentrations in different biospeciments, considering internal individual genetic characteristics.