TY - JOUR T1 - ERS International Congress, 2020: highlights from the Epidemiology and Environment Assembly JF - ERJ Open Research JO - erjor DO - 10.1183/23120541.00849-2020 SP - 00849-2020 AU - Diana A van der Plaat AU - Aino K Rantala AU - Sheikh M Alif AU - Dilek Karadoğan AU - Yutong Cai AU - Orianne Dumas Y1 - 2021/01/01 UR - http://openres.ersjournals.com/content/early/2021/01/21/23120541.00849-2020.abstract N2 - In this article, early career members of the Epidemiology and Environment Assembly of the European Respiratory Society (ERS) summarise a selection of five sessions from the Society's 2020 virtual congress. The topics covered include risk factors for chronic respiratory diseases over the life course, from early life origins to occupational exposures in adulthood, and the interplay between these risk factors, including gene-environment interactions. Novel results were also presented on smoking prevention and potential risks of vaping. Finally, the challenges and opportunities for epidemiological and environmental research brought by the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic were a major topic of this year's congress.FootnotesThis manuscript has recently been accepted for publication in the ERJ Open Research. It is published here in its accepted form prior to copyediting and typesetting by our production team. After these production processes are complete and the authors have approved the resulting proofs, the article will move to the latest issue of the ERJOR online. Please open or download the PDF to view this article.Conflict of interest: Dr. van der Plaat has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Dr. Rantala has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Dr. Alif has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Dr. Karadoğan has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Dr. Cai has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Dr. Dumas has nothing to disclose. ER -