Taiwan has the highest incidence and prevalence of treated end-stage renal disease (ESRD) worldwide, reported by United States Renal Data System (USRDS) in 2015. How to prevent the development and progression of chronic kidney disease (CKD) to become irreversible is an important topic in population health. The etiology of CKD is multifactorial. Traditional risk factors, such as age, ethnic group, diabetes, hypertension and hyperlipidemia could not be sufficient to illustrate the progression of CKD and its prognosis. Common environmental toxicants such as melamine and phthalates in Taiwan are also considered as additional crucial culprits for kidney damages; however, they are relatively less studied. In this talk, I am going to share our research findings in different susceptible populations and also discuss what future directions we can take in the era of Precision Public Health.
Key words: Emerging environmental toxicants; phthalates; melamine; biomarkers of early kidney injury; human biomonitoring