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

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Bhattarai, H., McLachlan, C. S., Khanal, P., Adhikari, T. B., Ranabhat, K., Koirala, S., Parajuli, S. B., Pokharel, Y., Paudel, S., Soti, P. B., Subedi, B., Wagle, C. N., Mahato, S., Pandey, G., Gyawali, P., Pandey, S., Gyawali, V., Devkota, S., Lohani, G. R. ... Neupane, D. (2021). May Measurement Month 2019: an analysis of blood pressure screening results from Nepal. European Heart Journal Supplements, 23(Suppl. B), B110-B113. https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/suab042

Khanal, P., Bhattarai, H. K., Ranabhat, K., Adhikari, T. B., Koirala, S., Parajuli, S., Pokharel, Y., Mishra, S. R., Shrestha, A. D., Paudel, S., Soti, P. B., Mahato, S., Pandey, G., Gyawali, P., Pandey, S., Devkota, S., Koirala, B. & Neupane, D. (2021). May Measurement Month 2019: an analysis of blood pressure screening results in Nepal. Journal of Hypertension, 39(e-Supplement 1), e125. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.hjh.0000745720.55553.cf

Samoli, E., Rodopoulou, S., Hvidtfeldt, U. A., Wolf, K., Stafoggia, M., Brunekreef, B., Strak, M., Chen, J., Andersen, Z. J., Atkinson, R., Bauwelinck, M., Bellander, T., Brandt, J., Cesaroni, G., Forastiere, F., Fecht, D., Gulliver, J., Hertel, O., Hoffmann, B. ... Katsouyanni, K. (2021). Modeling multi-level survival data in multi-center epidemiological cohort studies: Applications from the ELAPSE project. Environment International, 147, Article 106371. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2020.106371

Värendh, M., Janson, C., Bengtsson, C., Hellgren, J., Holm, M., Schlünssen, V., Johannessen, A., Franklin, K., Storaas, T., Jõgi, R., Gislason, T. & Lindberg, E. (2021). Nasal symptoms increase the risk of snoring and snoring increases the risk of nasal symptoms: A longitudinal population study. Sleep and Breathing, 25(4), 1851-1857. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11325-020-02287-8

Boudigaard, S. H., Schlünssen, V., Vestergaard, J. M., Søndergaard, K., Torén, K., Peters, S., Kromhout, H. & Kolstad, H. A. (2021). Occupational exposure to respirable crystalline silica and risk of autoimmune rheumatic diseases: a nationwide cohort study. International Journal of Epidemiology, 50(4), 1213-1226. https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyaa287

Skaaby, S., Flachs, E. M., Lange, P., Schlünssen, V., Marott, J. L., Brauer, C., Çolak, Y., Afzal, S., Nordestgaard, B. G., Sadhra, S., Kurmi, O. & Bonde, J. P. E. (2021). Occupational inhalant exposures and longitudinal lung function decline. European Respiratory Journal. Supplement, 58(6), Article 2004341. https://doi.org/10.1183/13993003.04341-2020