Parting thoughts.

It has been said that there is no stronger urge than the urge to edit someone else's writing. Upon my retirement from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), and concurrently from my position as co-editor-in-chief of Environmental Health Perspectives, I find that perhaps the stronger urge is not to edit but rather to editorialize. Therefore, I would like to provide some parting thoughts, and with them hopefully some insights gained from my experiences, which have spanned the broad spectrum of environmental health, from basic science to public health policy to science communication. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to work on many different aspects of the environmental health continuum during my time at the NIEHS. In looking back on a career of 30 years in environmental health, including 28 years as co-editor-in-chief of this journal, I am struck by a kaleidoscope of thoughts, emotions, and nostalgia, and in juxtaposition to these remembrances, a new perspective on the future. As the field of environmental health continues to expand as both a scientific discipline and a global movement, I feel that there are some major components which it must enthusiastically encompass if the field is to continue to provide real answers to the most pressing environmental health issues of our day.