Environmental Exposure and Health

Humans are exposed to a plethora of environmental parameters all the time, all their lives. Examples include the quality of the air we breathe and the water we drink.

In the research group “Environmental Exposure and Health”, we explore how the environment affects our health. We model environmental exposures for the entire population, often with big data from monitoring programs and Geographical Information Systems (GIS), to estimate individuals’ lifetime exposures by linking our data with their residential history.

Using the nationwide renowned Danish health registers, we can carry out large epidemiological studies on the health effects of environmental exposures, including gene environment interactions. Examples of exposures include air pollution and nitrate in drinking water and their effects on health outcomes like NCDs, negative birth outcomes and infections.

Research areas

Our research projects cover the following topics, among others:

Air pollution and family related determinants of NCDs in the population
Nitrate in drinking water and risk of NCDs in the population
Nitrate in drinking water and risk of birth defects, and psychiatric diseases

Recent publications

Sort by: Date | Author | Title

Mortil, I. M. A., Gaifém, F., Stecher, C. W., Wejse, C. M. & Adhikari, T. B. (2026). A comparative study of nutritional status and helminth infections among school-attending Mangyan children in the Philippines. Parasitology International, 111, Article 103194. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.parint.2025.103194

Ryan, K., Hooijmans, C. R., Struijs, F., van den Munckhof, S., Kiffen, R., Dahan, A., Hoffmann, S., Mandrioli, D., Menon, J. M., Roeleveld, N., Ritskes-Hoitinga, M., Schlünssen, V., Struys, M. M. & Scheepers, P. T. (2026). A health-based recommended occupational exposure limit for isoflurane and sevoflurane using experimental animal data based on a systematic review and dose-response analysis. Environmental Toxicology and Pharmacology, 121, Article 104916. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.etap.2025.104916

Alif, S. M., Benke, G., Kromhout, H., Abramson, M. J., Kogevinas, M., Jarvis, D., Le Moual, N., Dharmage, S., Schlünssen, V., Torén, K., Norback, D., Lytras, T., Carsin, A. E., Svanes, C., Olivieri, M., Dorado-Arenas, S., Urrutia, I., Erquicia, S. P., Acke, S. ... Zock, J. P. (2026). Occupational exposures and incidence of asthma over two decades in the European Community Respiratory Health Survey. Thorax, 81(1), 22-32. https://doi.org/10.1136/thorax-2024-222307

Wils, R. S., Flachs, E. M., Stokholm, Z. A., Kromhout, H., Peters, S., Ohlander, J., Kolstad, H. A., Sejbæk, C. S., Schlünssen, V., Hougaard, K. S., Huitfeldt Madsen, I. E., Rugulies, R., Ketzel, M., Hansen, J., Furbo Bang, C. N., Gustavsson, P., Fleischer, N. L., Mehlum, I. S. & Bonde, J. P. (2026). Occupational exposure to respirable crystalline quartz and the risk of incident acute myocardial infarction. International Journal of Environmental Health Research, 36(1), 80-92. https://doi.org/10.1080/09603123.2025.2482064

Duc, N. T. M., Dila, K. A. S., Nguyen, D. H., Eltaybani, S., Singal, A. G., Siddiqui, A. R., Piault-Louis, E., Fradelos, E. C., Ansar, F., Maselli, F., Han, H., Hill, J., Karbwang, J., Gupta, L., Verra, M. L., Karamouzian, M., Nair, R. C., Bronner, S., Adhikari, T. B. ... Huy, N. T. (2025). A checklist for translating and adapting questionnaires (CTAQ) in healthcare research: insights from a Delphi method approach. Tropical medicine and health, 53(1), 154. Article 154. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41182-025-00798-2

Amin, H., Bertelsen, R. J., Cramer, C., Jögi, N. O., Thorarinsdottir, H., Schlünssen, V., Benediktsdóttir, B., Janson, C. & Gislason, T. (2025). Airborne Microbial Signatures of Sleep Apnea Risk: Enrichment of Human-Associated and Loss of Environmental Taxa. Journal of Sleep Research, Article e70257. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1111/jsr.70257

Laustsen, L. M., Bergmann, M., Sigsgaard, T., Petersen, S. & Gabel, C. (2025). Air changes per hour in residential buildings and health outcomes: a scoping review. Indoor Environments, 2(2), Article 100102. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indenv.2025.100102

Displaying results 1 to 7 out of 1058