Pr Dominique Belpomme

What is environmental medicine

• Environmental health: a matter of public concern

• Environmental medicine: the diagnosis, prognosis evaluation, treatments and medical protective precautionary and prevention measures for patients suffering from different diseases or medical disorders whose environmental origin is scientifically suspected or already proven.

A new science-based approach

Aiming at characterize, diagnose and treat suspected or proven environment-related diseases or medical disorders before their clinical appearance and pathological detection

A need of objective tests and thus a need to identify and characterize new biological markers of exposure and, reflecting the causal mechanisms of diseases or disorders upstream their clinical effects.

Need for recognized biological markers which can be used routinely in medical practice

Implementat treatments treating the true causes of diseases disorders, not just their clinical effectsTherefore treatments are based not so much on classical clinico-biochemical standards, but mainly on upstream patho-physiological mechanisms underlaying the manifestations,

Therapeutic implementation

Biological interpretation of environment-related pathologies

Besides the Darwinian selective interpretation of disease occurrence, we should consider an epigenetic interpretation a neo-Lamarckian mechanism of disease induction. Second, it is being increasingly shown that due to environment, the first steps of many diseases or medical disorders may occur in utero, i.e. at the fetal stage.

What is epigenetics?

Epigenetic plays a major interface role between the organism and its environment.

Environmental medicine is therefore a complement to the public health goal of primary prevention and precaution toward environmental degradation,

Some historical recalls

1962. Theron G Randolph: concept of clinical ecology

1965. Foundation of the US society for clinical ecology

1984. Creation of the American Academy of Environmental Medicine

More recently. Creation of the European Environmental Medicine Academy,