Biomonitoring and Exposure Assessment in Vulnerable Populations: From Source to Health Outcome
A special issue of Toxics (ISSN 2305-6304). This special issue belongs to the section "Exposome Analysis and Risk Assessment".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2026 | Viewed by 20
Special Issue Editors
Interests: biomonitoring; exposome and intervention studies; exposure sources, pathways, and pollution prevention; emerging contaminants of public health concern; AI for chemical structure elucidation
2. Molecular Biosciences, School of Veterinary Medicine, The University of California, Davis, CA, USA
Interests: toxicology; liver disease; metabolism; pathology
Interests: biomonitoring and community exposure studies; exposure pathways and source identification; heavy metals in food and public health; emerging contaminants and non-targeted analysis; climate justice and environmental policy; soil carbon sequestration and stability
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Exposure to environmental contaminants poses a significant risk to public health. Vulnerable populations including children, older adults, and low-income communities often face a disproportionate burden of exposures to harmful chemicals in the environment, resulting in increased health risks.
While environmental sampling (e.g., air, water, soil) and consumer product testing are crucial for identifying sources of environmental chemicals, to effectively assess and address the health effects of chemical exposures, biomonitoring studies and human exposure monitoring through the analysis of biological matrices (e.g., blood, urine) must be integrated.
Biomonitoring links environmental contaminants to internal body burden and potential health effects. Notable contaminants of concern include, but are not limited to industrial and consumer product chemicals (bisphenols, phthalates, parabens, PFAS, flame retardants), agricultural chemicals (pesticides, carbamates), environmental pollutants (heavy metals, PAHs, PCBs, PCDDs/Fs), food contact and dietary contaminants (plasticizers) .
Findings from biomonitoring efforts enable public health agencies and communities to:
- Assess population-level exposure to harmful chemicals in the environment
- Identify potential sources and exposure pathways of contaminants
- Identify communities disproportionately affected by environmental pollution and propose intervention and mitigation strategy
- Establish linkage between internal doses and potential health effects
- Educate the public on how to reduce or prevent chemical exposures
Biomonitoring studies play a critical role in shaping public health policies, regulatory standards, and research priorities. Understanding environmental exposures and their impact on human health requires interdisciplinary collaboration among public health professionals, scientists, toxicologists, epidemiologists, and community members.
This special issue aims to raise awareness to biomonitoring efforts and highlight the connections between the environmental exposure and chemical body burden through contributions from diverse disciplines. We invite submissions that delve into topics such as:
- Investigation on contamination sources
- Examination of exposure pathways
- Quantification of contaminants in biological or environmental media
- Identification of communities at higher risk of harmful chemical exposures
- Innovations in detection and quantification techniques, particularly those utilizing LC/GC-MS platforms.
- Exploration on links between chemical exposures, biological effects, and health outcomes, including biomarker discovery, acute and chronic health impacts, and developmental disorders
We encourage submissions from researchers across disciplines, including environmental science, analytical chemistry, toxicology, epidemiology, and public health.
Dr. Jianwen She
Dr. Joy Xiaosong Jiang
Guest Editors
Dr. Dinesh Adhikari
Guest Editor Assistant
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Toxics is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- biomonitoring
- source identification
- emerging contaminants
- exposure and effect biomarkers
- vulnerable communities
- health outcome
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