Measuring the exposome: a practical guide for using wearable passive samplers to assess environmental influences

Wearable passive samplers present tremendous opportunity for measuring the exposome. These tools offer a user-friendly and cost-effective approach to assess personal exposure, enabling access to remote communities and under-researched vulnerable populations. Use of these wearable devices has gained popularity over the past two decades but before these tools can be adopted for routine use in large-scale health studies, they require standardization to ensure data reproducibility. With the objective of harmonizing wearable passive sampler use, this paper serves as a guide to available technologies (Fresh Air samplers, commercial silicone wristbands, custom silicone bands, and the silicone brooch) and best practices for assessing exposure to environmental chemicals. We discuss the optimal duration to wear these sampling tools, essential quality control and quality assurance measures, chemical analysis approaches, and strategies to interpret measured exposures. We also propose minimum guidelines for sample collection and reporting data to foster measurement standardization and secondary analysis. Strategies to improve data transparency through harmonization will enable comparability of the comprehensive measures of the exposome using wearable passive samplers.