Mapping Lung DiseasE Through Social Epigenetics, Environment, and Disparity (MAPLE-SEED) Study

Project Summary

Chronic lung diseases such as emphysema have often been blamed on cigarette smoking or unfavorable genetics. However, these risk factors do not account for all cases. We have recently found that social and economic factors such as the neighbourhood an individual lives in has an impact on the lungs. Other factors such as air pollution exposure or their diet, education, income, and employment status might also increase the risk of lung disease. We explore the possibility that the reason why this occurs is because these exposures changes the structure of the genes in blood in ways that make lung injury more possible. We will use two cohorts to test this hypothesis, both national cohorts evaluating Canadians for their lung function.