Human modification of the environment proceeds in a rapid way but the speed of research investigating its impact on human health is much lower. Epidemiology has been crucial in identifying causal relationships with a strong impact on modern public health, however, we are now aware that causal relationships have become much more complex in the world we live in.

The impact of a low socio-economic position in society, increasing poverty in strata of the population, widespread environmental transformation and climate change are examples of complex causal relationships and it is important to apply the same degree of complexity to public health interventions once causality has been reasonably established. It is now acknowledged that health promotion at the individual level has little effectiveness and tends to amplify socio-economic differences in health. Moreover, epidemiological studies are post hocand, particularly in the field of non-communicable diseases, may give results only many years after the introduction of potential hazards in the environment. Therefore, sophisticated community-based interventions are required to strengthen causal inferences as well as accurate and exhaustive ways to evaluate and summarize the evidence creating a bridge between research and public health.

A major emphasis is given to precision prevention. This has been proposed as a new frontier for public health, following the wave of enthusiasm around progress in genetics, omics and Big Data. However, precision prevention may be misleading because most preventive strategies so far have been proved to be effective at the society level rather than in susceptible high-risk individuals. Prevention is largely based on interventions outside the health area and systemic rather sectoral interventions may be much more rewarding. The journal intends to be a forum for a debate on the expectations and achievements of precision prevention promoting constructive discussion around inter-sectoral interventions which span from health promotion to climate change, transportation, environmental change and even species diversity.