Biology Department Faculty

I am a pediatrician and public health physician.  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. 

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.  My 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.  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.  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.  

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. 

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.

• The Consortium for Children’s Environmental Health. Manufactured Chemicals and Children’s Health — The Need for New Law. New England Journal of Medicine. doi:10.1056/NEJMms2409092 

*Members of the Consortium for Children’s Environmental Health include: David A. Wirth, J.D., Maureen Cropper, Ph.D., Daniel A. Axelrad, M.P.P., Caroline Bald, B.S., Aruni Bhatnagar, Ph.D., Linda S. Birnbaum, Ph.D., Thomas A. Burke, Ph.D., M.P.H., Thomas C. Chiles, Ph.D., Ken Geiser, Ph.D., Carly Griffin, B.S., Pushpam Kumar, Ph.D., Daniele Mandrioli, M.D., Yongjoon Park, Ph.D., Hervé Raps, M.D., Apolline Roger, Ph.D., Ted R. Smith, Ph.D., J. Christopher States, Ph.D., Kurt Straif, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H., Joel A. Tickner, Sc.D., Wendy Wagner, J.D., Zhanyun Wang, D.Sc., Ella M. Whitman, B.A., Tracey J. Woodruff, Ph.D., M.P.H., Aroub Yousuf, B.A., and Philip J. Landrigan, M.D.

• Landrigan PJ, Rémond J, Gomarasca P, Chiles TC, Whitman EM, Ferrer L. Laudato Si’ and the emerging contribution of Catholic research universities to planetary health. Lancet Planetary Health 2024; 8: e140-e141. doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(24)00012-3
• Landrigan PJ. Plastics, fossil carbon and the heart. New Engl J Med 2024; 390:10. doi:10.1056/NEJMe2400683
• Fleming LE, Landrigan PJ, Ashford OS, Whitman EM, Swift A, Gerwick W, Heymans JJ, Hicks CC, Morrissey K, White MP, Alcantara-Creencia L, Alexander KA, Astell-Burt T, Berlinck RGS, Cohen PJ, Hixson R, Islam MM, Iwasaki A, Praptiwi RA Raps H, Remy JY, Sowman G, Ternon E, Thiele T, Thilsted SH, Uku J, Ockenden S, Kumar P. Enhancing Human Health and Wellbeing through Sustainably and Equitably Unlocking a Healthy Ocean’s Potential. Annals of Global Health 2024; 90 (1): 00, 1 – 27. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/aogh.4471. 
• Landrigan PJ, Raps H, Cropper M, Bald C, Brunner M, Canonizado EM, Charles D, Chiles TC, Donohue MJ, Enck J, Fenichel P, Fleming LE, Ferrier-Pages C, Fordham R, Gozt A, Griffin C, Hahn ME, Haryanto B, Hixson R, Ianelli H, James BD, Kumar P, Laborde A, Law KL, Martin K, Mu J, Mulders Y, Mustapha A, Niu J, Pahl S, Park Y, Pedrotti M-L, Pitt JA, Ruchirawat M, Seewoo BJ, Spring M, Stegeman JJ, Suk W, Symeonides C, Takada H, Thompson RC, Vicini A, Wang Z, Whitman E, Wirth D, Wolff M, Yousuf AK, Dunlop S. The Minderoo-Monaco Commission on Plastics and Human Health. Annals of Global Health. 2023; Mar 21;89(1):23. doi: 10.5334/aogh.4056. 
• Fisher S, Bellinger DC, Cropper ML, Kumar P, Binagwaho A, Biao Koudenoukpo J, Park Y, Taghian G, Landrigan PJ. Air Pollution and Development in Africa: Impacts on Health, the Economy and Human Capital. Lancet Planetary Health, 2021; 5: e681–88. doi: 10.1016/S2542-5196(21)00201-1.
• Landrigan PJ, Stegeman JJ, Fleming LE, Allemand D, Anderson DM, Backer LC, Brucker-Davis F, Chevalier N, Corra L, Czerucka D, Bottein M-YD, Demeneix B, Depledge M, Deheyn DD, Dorman CJ, Fénichel P, Fisher S, Gaill F, Galgani F, Gaze WH, Giuliano L, Grandjean P, Hahn ME, Hamdoun A, Hess P, Judson B, Laborde A, McGlade J, Mu J, Mustapha A, Neira M, Noble RT, Pedrotti ML, Reddy C, Rocklöv J, Scharler UM, Shanmugam H, Taghian G, van de Water JAJM, Vezzulli L, Weihe P, Zeka A, Raps H, Rampal P. Human Health and Ocean Pollution. Annals of Global Health. 2020; 86(1): 151, 1–64. doi.org/10.5334/aogh.2831.
• 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; 21(1):70.  doi:10.1186/s12940-022-00879-3.
• Taghian G, Fisher S, Chiles TC, Binagwaho A, Landrigan PJ. The Burden of Cardiovascular Disease from Air Pollution in Rwanda. Annals of Global Health. 2024; 90(1): 1–9.  doi.org/10.5334/aogh.4322
• Landrigan PJ. Pediatric cancer and the environment – A fifty-year perspective. Annals of Research in Oncology. Vol. 2(2), 89-93, 2022    doi: 10.48286/aro.2022.46 
• Binagwaho A, Laborde A, Landrigan PJ. Safeguarding children's health in a changing global environment. Lancet,2022 Oct 8;400(10359):1176-1178. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(22)01797-4. 

• Fuller R, Landrigan PJ, Balakrishnan K,et al. Pollution and Health: A Progress Update. Lancet Planetary Health 2022; https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(22)00090-0

• 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. doi.org/10.5334/aogh.3702

• 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. doi:10.1186/s12940-022-00879-3.

• Binagwaho A, Laborde A, Landrigan PJ. Safeguarding children’s health in a changing global environment (Invited editorial). Lancet. September 21, 2022 doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(22)01797-4

•  Rajagopalan S, Landrigan PJ. Pollution and the heart. New England Journal of Medicine, 2021 11;385(20):1881-1892. doi: 10.1056/NEJMra2030281.

• Landrigan PJ, Stegeman JJ, Fleming LE, ... Raps H, Rampal P. et al. Human Health and Ocean Pollution. Annals of Global Health. 2020; 86(1): 151, 1–64.
• Landrigan PJ, Ferrer L, Keenan JF. COVID-19 and Health Disparities:  Structural Evil Unmasked. Annals of Global Health, 2021; 86(1): 1–5. doi
• Pandey A, Brauer M, Cropper ML, Balakrishnan K,  ...Kumar P,  Landrigan PJ, Dandona L et al. The health and economic impact of air pollution in the states of India: The Global Burden of Disease Study 2019. Lancet Planetary Health, 2020; 5: e25- e38.
• Woolhandler S, Himmelstein D, Ahmed S, ...Landrigan PJ, McKee M, ...Tesema L, Venkataraman A.  Lancet Commission on Public Policy and Health in the Trump Era. Lancet 2021; 397: 705-753 
• Landrigan Philip J, Goldman Lynn R.; OpEd, New York Times A Bad Move That Could End Up Exposing Kids to Chemicals Without explaining why, the E.P.A. has sidelined its top children’s health advocate. October 2018
• Landrigan PJ, Fuller R, Fisher S, Chiles TC, Sly P, Suk WA, Bose-O'Reilly S. Pollution and Children's Health. Science of the Total Environment, in press, 2018.  
• Landrigan PJ, Landrigan MM. Children & Environmental Toxins. What Everyone Needs to Know. Oxford University Press 2018.
• Landrigan PJ, Fuller R, Acosta NJR, et al.  Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health. Lancet 2018; 391:462-512.
• Landrigan PJ, Fuller R, Hu H, Caravanos J, Cropper ML, Hanrahan D, Sandilya K, Chiles T, Kumar P, Suk WA.  Pollution and Global Health - An Agenda for Prevention.  Environ Health Perspect 2018.
• Fuller R, Rahona E, Fisher S, Caravanos J, Webb D, Kass D, Matte T, Landrigan PJ.  Pollution and non-communicable disease: time to end the neglect. Lancet Planetary Health, 2, e96-e98, 2018.
• Laborde A. Tomasina F, Bianchi F, Brune M-N, Buka I, Comba P, Corra L, Cori L, Duffert CM, Harari R, Iavarone I, McDiarmid MA, Gray KA, Sly PD, Soares A, Suk WA, Landrigan PJ.  Children's Health in Latin America: The Influence of Environmental Exposures. Environ Health Perspect 123:201-209, 2015
• Heindel JJ, Balbus J, Birnbaum L, Brune-Drisse MN, Grandjean P, Gray K, Landrigan PJ, Sly PD, Suk W, Cory Slechta D, Thompson C, Hanson M.  Developmental Origins of Health and Disease: Integrating Environmental Indluences. Endocrinology, 1-5, 2015. 
• Grandjean P, Landrigan PJ.  Neurobehavioural effects of developmental toxicity. Lancet Neurol 13:330-338, 2014.
• Landrigan PJ, Etzel RA (Editors). Textbook of Children's Environmental Health. London: Oxford University Press, November 2013
• Landrigan PJ, Goldman LR.  Children's Vulnerability to Toxic Chemicals: A Challenge and Opportunity to Strengthen Health and Environmental Policy.  Health Affairs 30(5):842-850, 2011.
• Wisnivesky JP, Teitelbaum S, Todd A, Boffetta P, Crane M, Crowley L, Dellenbaugh C, Harrison D, Herbert R, Hyun K, Jeon Y, Kaplan J, Katz C, Levin S, Luft B, Markowitz S, Moline J, Osbay F, Pietrzak R, Shapiro M, Sharma V, Skloot G, Southwick S, Stevenson L, Udasin I, Wallenstein S, Landrigan PJ. Persistence of multiple illnesses in World Trade Center rescue and recovery workers: a cohort study. Lancet 378: 888-897, 2011.
• Landrigan PJ (Chair): Pesticides in the Diets of Infants and Children. Washington: National Academy Press, 1993.
• Landrigan PJ, Whitworth RH, Baloh RW, Barthel WF, Staehling NW, Rosenblum BF:  Neuropsychological dysfunction in children with chronic low-level lead absorption. Lancet 1:708-712, 1975
• Landrigan PJ, Gehlbach SH, Rosenblum BF, Shoults JM, Candelaria RM, Barthel WF, Liddle JA, Smrek AL, Staehling NW, Sanders JF:  Epidemic lead absorption near an ore smelter: the role of particulate lead. New Engl J Med 292:123-129, 1975