Anthroposomics: integrating anthropological methods into exposome research

Abstract

Background: Exposome research seeks to understand how cumulative environmental exposures across the life course shape health outcomes. Most studies however, adopt a unidirectional, top-down model, conceptualizing individuals as passive recipients of exposure, which overlooks the social, cultural, and behavioral dynamics through which people engage with their environments and thus underestimates the human agency of those exposed in mitigating exposures.

Main body : To address this gap, we introduce the concept of the anthroposome: the full range of micro-ecological practices through which individuals and communities sense, interpret, avoid, and manage environmental exposures in daily life. Drawing on anthropological theory and focusing on ethnographic methods, we outline five discovery-based approaches for integrating lived experience and social complexity into exposome science. These methods highlight how everyday practices influence exposure pathways and reveal context-specific risk management strategies conventional exposure researchers may miss. Capturing bidirectional human–environment interactions, anthroposomics repositions populations suffering from exposure as active agents who participate in shaping their exposure landscapes.

Conclusion: Anthroposomics expands the exposome paradigm by integrating ethnographic methods into exposome research, enhancing the paradigm's relevance, effectiveness, and equity. Anthroposomics offers a foundation for preventive, community-responsive, justice-oriented environmental health interventions and policy.

Keywords: Anthroposomics; Community health interventions; Ethnography; Exposome; Methods.

Fig. 1

The Еxposome [17]

Fig. 2

The arrows back

Fig. 3

Lead-glazed trastes de barro for sale in Mexico City (Photograph by Elizabeth Roberts 2018)

Fig. 4

Demonstrating a cigarette butt filtering a methamphetamine preparation (Photograph by Michael Anastario June 2025)

Fig. 5

Left: Syringes Anastario tested for metals. Right: handheld pXRF device used in study. (Photograph by Michael Anastario June 2025)

Fig. 6

Above: sensory map of Dolores Street, Marikina, the Philippines; Below: Inside view of the shoemaking workshop (Map and Photograph by Precious Echague, October 2024)

Fig. 7

Above: VOC (ppb) levels in a workshop measured by six devices from midnight until 9pm; Below: Part of an observation guide, used to record of workshop gluing and painting practices (Photography by Precious Echague 2025)

Fig. 8

Left: interview with service-sector worker at home in Puerto Princesa, Philippines; Right: her personal care products (Photographs by Anita Hardon, 2014)

Fig. 9

Left: Glutamax soap online advertisement, with tagline Kutis Mayaman (skin of the rich); Right: Ponds skin-whitening creams, marketed with a color-grading strip to “measure” their effects (Photographs by Anita Hardon, 2018)

Fig. 10

Cleaning products used in a Mexico City household (Photograph by Elizabeth F.S. Roberts, 2023)