Environmental health and genomics: visions and implications

The relationship between genes and the environment can be compared to a loa ded gun and its trigger, A loaded gun by itself causes no harm; it is only when the trigger is pulled that the potential Tor harm is released, Genetic susceptibility creates an analogous situation, where the loaded gun is one or a combination of susceptibility genes (alleles) and the trigger is an e nvironmental exposure. The key object ve of the Environmental Genome Projec t is to identify alleles that confer susceptibility to the adverse effects of environmental agents. Here we discuss the goals of the Environmental Gen ome Project, its implications and, in particular, its potential effect on o ur ability to assess human disease risk in the future.