Exposomics: The Missing Puzzle in India’s Environmental Health Strategy

A World Environment Day 2025 Special

Focus Theme: "Ending Plastic Pollution for a Healthier Planet"

World Environment Day 2025 has sharpened global attention on plastic pollution, which is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to environmental health hazards. From toxic air and chemical residues in food to rising noise pollution and urban heat islands, modern life exposes people to a complex web of risk factors. India, now accounting for nearly 25% of the global environmental disease burden, needs a paradigm shift - and exposomics might just offer the scientific revolution we’ve been waiting for.

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What is Exposomics and Why Is It Critical Now?

Coined from the word “exposure,” exposomics is the comprehensive science of studying all the environmental exposures a human being encounters over their entire lifetime - from the womb to old age.

Unlike traditional environmental health studies, which examine only one or two exposures in isolation, exposomics integrates:

• Chemical pollutants (e.g. microplastics, PM2.5, heavy metals)

• Physical hazards (noise, radiation, heatwaves)

• Biological stressors (infections, pathogens, allergens)

• Social and behavioural risks (urban lifestyle, poor diet, smoking, mental stress)

Together, these shape the total disease risk a person faces - especially in developing countries like India, where urbanisation, poverty, and weak public health systems compound the crisis.

Why India Needs Exposomics Urgently:

   1. High Environmental Disease Burden

• Air pollution alone contributes to 1.7 million premature deaths annually in India.

• The Global Burden of Disease (GBD) framework tracks only ~11 exposure categories, missing out on many local risk factors like solid waste, untreated sewage, and informal e-waste.

• Microplastics are now being detected in human blood and placenta, yet their long-term effects remain poorly understood.

2. Climate Change as a Risk Multiplier

• India is now facing increased vector-borne diseases, extreme heat, food insecurity, and flood-related disease outbreaks.

• Mental health disorders such as depression and anxiety are on the rise due to urban stressors and climate anxiety — an intersection poorly mapped by current systems.

 3. Gaps in Traditional Public Health Research

• Most studies assess one exposure at one point in time.

• They ignore interactions between pollutants, time-delayed effects, and how exposures vary by region, age, sex, and income.

• Critical pathways of disease - like the gut microbiome, immune response, and neurodevelopment - are often excluded.

How Exposomics Can Transform Public Health Policy in India:

Current Challenges in Implementing Exposomics in India:

Despite its promise, exposomics in India is still in its infancy. Several constraints must be addressed:

• Lack of skilled manpower in bioinformatics, environmental toxicology, and data science.

• Poor data integration across pollution control boards, health registries, and city planning agencies.

• Infrastructure costs of maintaining long-term bio-monitoring stations or wearable exposure sensors.

• Privacy and ethics issues around health-environment data collection and sharing.

What Can Be Done? – Way Forward for India:

1. Launch a National Exposomics Mission

Involve institutions like ICMR, CSIR, NITI Aayog, and state health departments to build an interdisciplinary framework.

2. Harness Digital India for Environmental Health

Combine remote sensing, citizen science, and wearable biosensors with AI models to track exposures in real time.

3. Build Capacity

Start specialised academic programs and fellowships in exposomics and digital public health.

4. Foster Public-Private-Academic Collaborations

Engage startups, environmental NGOs, and universities to co-develop bio-monitoring platforms and open-access datasets.

5. Create Localised Exposure Maps

Design pollution heatmaps, water quality indices, and noise exposure zones for every major city to inform smart governance.

Real-World Application: What Exposomics Can Look Like in Practice:

Imagine this: A smart health dashboard in Bengaluru that pulls real-time data on:

• Air quality from CPCB monitors

• Food contamination alerts from FSSAI

• Noise levels from IoT sensors

• Individual exposure histories from health apps

This system alerts local governments about rising asthma cases in schoolchildren during dry months - allowing for early school closures, air purifier deployment, and medical outreach.

That’s exposomics in action - predictive, preventive, and proactive.

Conclusion: Exposomics as a Game-Changer for New India

India stands at a critical juncture. As the country grows economically and urbanises rapidly, the invisible crisis of environmental disease could undermine its demographic dividend and SDG ambitions.

Exposomics bridges the gap between science and policy, between invisible exposure and visible illness. By adopting a whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach, India can evolve from firefighting public health crises to preventing them altogether.

Investing in exposomics today will empower India to become not just a stronger economy, but a healthier, smarter, and more resilient nation tomorrow.