Looking to the Horizon: Advancing Precision for Novel Entities Towards Planetary Health

Global chemicals production is outpacing implementation of technologies and environmental management systems intended to avoid impacts of chemicals and waste and achieve Sustainable Development Goals, especially in urbanizing regions around the world. These realities challenge conventional environmental assessment and management strategies, and elicit cascading impacts when disasters occur. We must engage exceedances of earth system boundaries for novel entities by embracing systems-based approaches that leverage informatics of species to better understand and reduce the risks of global pollution by design. Advances in and connections across exposure science and comparative toxicology promise to stimulate development of precision innovations and interventions that accelerate the science and improve the practice of environmental science, engineering, and health. We need to expand horizon scanning efforts, synthesis activities, and non-traditional partnerships to realize reciprocal benefits towards Planetary Health.

Bryan W. Brooks is Distinguished Professor of Environmental Science and Public Health at Baylor University, USA. His research interests include eco-, environmental and comparative toxicology, environmental and green chemistry, chemical assessment and management, harmful algal blooms, and environmental public health practice. Working with students and other collaborators, Bryan has contributed over 350 manuscripts in journals and book chapters. He currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of Environmental Science & Technology Letters (ACS Publications; https://pubs.acs.org/journal/estlcu) and previously served as Editor in Chief of Environmental Management (Springer Nature). Bryan recently received the Doctor Honoris Causa from the University of South Bohemia in the Czech Republic and served as a Royal Society Te Apārangi Catalyst International Leaders Fellow in New Zealand. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, and the Royal Society of Chemistry.