Biology Department Faculty

I am a pediatrician and public health physician.  My research uses the tools of clinical medicine and 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 lifelong behavioral problems even in the absence of clinically obvious symptoms of lead poisoning.  Based on these findings, and despite the vigorous opposition of the lead industry, my colleagues and I 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.

The study of Pesticides in the Diets of Infants and Children that I led at US National Academy of Sciences in the early 1990s found that children are much more sensitive than adults 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 - the Food Quality Protection Act - to specifically safeguard children’s health. That work led also to creation of EPA’s Office of Children’s Health Protection and the national network of Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Units (PEHSUs).

In New York City, where I was a member of the faculty of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai from 1985 to 2018, I served as Chair of Mount Sinai’s Department of Preventive Medicine, Professor of Pediatrics, and Dean for Global Health. I oversaw Mount Sinai’s medical and epidemiologic follow-up of more than 20,000 9/11 rescue workers.  Our examinations of these brave 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. I am currently co-leading, with Prof Joacim Rocklöv of Heidelberg University, The Lancet Countdown on Health and Plastics, an independent, health-focused global monitoring platform that over the next decade will track and quantify plastics’ harms to human and planetary health across all stages of the plastic life cycle.

I am a member of the US National Academy of Medicine. From 2018-2026, I had the privilege to serve as Founding Director of the Program for Global Public Health and the Common Good at Boston College.

• The Consortium for Children’s Environmental Health, Philip J. Landrigan, M.D. senior author. 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, Dunlop S, Treskova M, Raps H. Symeonides C, Muncke J, Spring M, Stegeman J, Almroth BC, Chiles TC, Cropper M, Deeney M, Fuller L, Geyer R, Karasik R, Mafira T, Mangwiro A, Matias DM, Mulders Y, Park Y, Velis CA, Vermeulen RCC, Wagner M, Wang Z, Whitman EM, Woodruff TJ Rocklöv J.  The Lancet Countdown on Health and Plastics. Lancet 2025; 406: 1044–59. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(25)01447-3
• Cropper M, Dunlop S, Hinshaw H, Landrigan P, Park Y, Symeonides C. The benefits of removing toxic chemicals from plastics. Proc Natl Acad Sci 2024: 101 (0) e2412714121 doi/10.1073/pnas.2412714121
• 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. 
• Muenzel T, Sørensen M, Lelieveld J, Landrigan PJ, Kuntic M, Nieuwenhuijsen M, Miller M, Schneider A, Daiber A. A comprehensive review/expert statement on environmental risk factors of cardiovascular disease. Cardiovascular Research 121:1-26, 2025 https://doi.org/10.1093/cvr/cvaf119.
• Panzacchi S, Tibaldi E, De Angelis L, Falcioni L, Giovannini R, Gnudi F, Iuliani M, Manservigi M, Manservisi F, Manzoli I, Menghetti I, Montelli R, Noferini R, Sgargi D, Strollo V, Antoniou M, Chen J, Dinelli G, Lorenzetti S, Mantovani A, Mesnage R, Perry MJ, Vornoli A, Landrigan PJ, Belpoggi F, Mandrioli D. Carcinogenic effects in Sprague-Dawley Rats Exposed Long-term from Prenatal Life to Glyphosate and Glyphosate-Based Herbicides. Environ Health 24, 36 (2025). doi.org/10.1186/s12940-025-01187-2
• 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.
• 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
• Landrigan PJ, Fuller R, Acosta NJR, et al.   Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health. Lancet 2018; 391:462-512.
• 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. 
• 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
• 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.
• 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 PJ, Landrigan MM. Children & Environmental Toxins. What Everyone Needs to Know. Oxford University Press 2018.
• 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.
• Etzel RA, Landrigan PJ, (Editors).  Textbook of Children's Environmental Health. Second edition. London: Oxford University Press, June 2024. ISBN 9780197662533
• 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
• Landrigan PJ. Epidemic Measles in a Divided City. JAMA. 1972;221(6):567–570. doi:10.1001/jama.1972.03200190013003.