Professor
Director of the Program for Global Public Health and the Common Good Director of the Global Observatory on Planetary Health
Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society
Higgins Hall 648A
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Telephone: 617-552-8209
Email: phil.landrigan@bc.edu
ORCID
Global Public Health; Children's Environmental Health; Occupational Health
I am a pediatrician and public health physician.Ìý My research uses the tools of epidemiology to increase understanding of how hazardous exposures in the environment harm human health, especially the health of infants and children. I am deeply committed to translating findings from my research into public policy to protect health, prevent disease and save lives.Ìý
For many years, my research focused on neurotoxic chemicals such as lead and pesticides, and I undertook investigations quantifying the effects of these chemicals on children’s developing brains. ÌýMy early studies of childhood lead poisoning conducted in collaboration with my colleague the late Herbert L. Needleman, MD demonstrated that lead is toxic to children even at very low levels, causing IQ loss and behavioral problems in the absence of clinically obvious symptoms of lead poisoning.Ìý Based on those findings, and despite the vigorous opposition of the lead industry, we successfully persuaded the US Environmental Protection Agency to remove lead from gasoline and paint. These actions reduced childhood lead poisoning in the USA by 95% and resulted in a nearly 5-point gain in the mean IQ of all American children born since 1980. Studies I led at US National Academy of Sciences found that children are exquisitely sensitive to pesticides and other toxic chemicals in the environment. Based on those findings, my colleagues and I were able to persuade the US Congress to revamp the federal pesticide law in the United States to specifically safeguard children’s health. That work led also to creation of EPA’s Office of Children’s Health Protection.
In New York City, where I worked for many years in the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, I was involved in the medical and epidemiologic follow-up of 20,000 9/11 rescue workers.Ìý Our studies of these men and women documented that more than 40% have persistent abnormalities of pulmonary function and that approximately 15% have mental health problems related to their service.ÌýÌý
Most recently, my research has examined global environmental threats to health. From 2015-2018, I co-chaired the Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health, which found that pollution is responsible for an estimated 9 million deaths per year, is closely linked to climate change, and is an existential threat to planetary health. Since 2019, I have chaired the Monaco Commission on Human Health and Ocean Pollution examining the links between ocean pollution and human health. From 2021-2023, I chaired the Minderoo-Monaco Commission on Plastics and Human Health, which examined plastics’ impacts on human health across the plastic life cycle and formulated recommendations to guide drafting of the UN Global Plastics Treaty, currently in development.Ìý
To continue this work, I am now directing the Global Public Health Program and Global Observatory on Planetary Health at Boston College. I am a member of the US National Academy of Medicine.
Fuller R, Landrigan PJ, Balakrishnan K,et al. Pollution and Health: A Progress Update. Lancet Planetary Health 2022;
Varieur BM, Fisher S, Landrigan PJ. Air pollution, political corruption, and cardiovascular disease in the former Soviet republics. Annals of Global Health. 2022; 88(1): 48, 1–11.
Landrigan PJ, Fisher S, Kenny ME, Gedeon B, Bryan L, Mu J, Bellinger D. A replicable strategy for mapping air pollution's community-level health impacts and catalyzing prevention. Environ Health. 2022 Jul 18; 21 (1):70.
Binagwaho A, Laborde A, Landrigan PJ. Safeguarding children’s health in a changing global environment (Invited editorial). Lancet. September 21, 2022
ÌýRajagopalan S, Landrigan PJ. Pollution and the heart. New England Journal of Medicine, 2021 11;385(20):1881-1892.
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