Fig. 1.

Recommended approach for deciphering the environmental variables that cause germline mutation and heritable epigenetic changes in humans. Establishment of baseline genetic variance in parallel with controlled experiments in animals and on highly exposed humans will provide the foundational experiments to estimate power. Tissue repositories from well-characterized human cohorts will be developed for future studies aimed at investigating the more subtle environmental variables that influence heritable outcomes. The results of these experiments will be used to develop human health policy and testing guidelines to ensure the protection of human gametes and future generations.