Occupational Exposure and Human Health: From Biomarker Discovery to Epidemiological Insights

Dear Colleagues,

Workers are exposed to numerous pollutants through inhalation, ingestion, and dermal contact. Exposure assessment in the workplace can be performed by measuring pollutant concentrations in different environments and subsequently assessing occupational exposures by considering the lifestyle and working patterns of individuals, such as the time spent in microenvironments or working scenarios. The body burden resulting from occupational exposure is determined by various factors, such as contaminant concentration, duration of exposure, metabolism, and excretion rates. Human biomonitoring is a complementary approach to exposure assessment that has been widely employed to characterize occupational exposure to various contaminants. Biomarkers of exposure can be used to assess occupational exposure, whereas markers of health effects provide information on the health impact of such exposures. By integrating biomonitoring with epidemiological approaches, researchers can better elucidate the causal relationships between occupational exposure and attributable health endpoints.

The present Special Issue, titled “Occupational Exposure and Human Health: From Biomarker Discovery to Epidemiological Insights,” aims to advance knowledge regarding health impacts of occupational exposures across diverse occupational settings using biomonitoring and epidemiological approaches. Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

1. Assessing occupational exposure using biomarkers of exposure in various biological matrices, such as urine, blood, exhaled breath condensate, hair, and nails. 
2. Assessment of early health risks associated with occupational exposure through markers of health effects, such as oxidative stress, inflammation, and DNA damage.
3. Investigating the associations between internal dose and external occupational exposure.
4. Exploring potential exposure pathways in occupational settings.
5. Analytical and methodological advances in human biomonitoring for assessing occupational exposure.
6. Dose-response relationships between occupational exposure and health outcomes.
7. Longitudinal cohort studies to assess cumulative occupational exposure.
8. Advanced statistical methods for causal inference in occupational epidemiology.

We cordially invite all researchers to submit their submissions (i.e., original research papers, review articles, and highlights) for publication in this Special Issue.  

Dr. Ata Rafiee
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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