Join us for the opening seminar of the:

GIJS Van Seventer Environmental Health Seminar Series:
Global Environmental Health: Science, Policy & Practice

The Insufficiently Appreciated Impact of Pollution on Global Health

on Friday September 9th 12:45-1:45pm in L112

Pollution-related disease (PRD) is a massive and growing global problem.  Diseases caused by pollution are responsible for nearly 9 million premature deaths each year, almost three times as many deaths as result from AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined. PRD, poverty and inequity are intertwined, and PRD falls most heavily upon children, women, and the poor. More than 90% of deaths due to PRD occur in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

The nature of pollution is changing. In rapidly developing countries, levels of ambient air pollution, toxic chemical pollution and soil pollution are increasing sharply in consequence of urbanization, increasing motor vehicle use and the proliferation of toxic chemicals, pesticides and polluting industries. Asthma, neurodevelopmental disorders and sudden infant death syndrome are the main health consequences for children.  In adults, health effects include COPD, atherosclerosis, ischemic heart disease, stroke, renal disease, lung cancer and accelerated neurological degeneration.

In this opening lecture of the Gijs van Seventer Environmental Health Seminar Series, Global Environmental Health: Science, Policy and Practice, Dr. Landrigan explores the global impact of pollution and pollution-related diseases.  The changing nature of pollution and PRDs is described along with the staggering economic and development costs due to these diseases.  Efforts to address this increasing, and neglected global problem are discussed, including the launch of the Global Commission on Pollution & Health, an initiative of The Lancet, the Global Alliance on Health and Pollution (GAHP), and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, are summarized. 

Philip J. Landrigan, MD, MSc, FAAP, is Professor of Preventive Medicine and Pediatrics and Dean for Global Health in Arnhold Institute for Global Health of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He is a pediatrician, epidemiologist, and leader in public health and preventive medicine.

Dr. Landrigan’s pioneering research on the effects of lead poisoning in children contributed to the U.S. government’s decision to remove lead from gasoline and paint. His leadership of a National Academy of Sciences Committee on pesticides in children’s diets generated widespread understanding that children are uniquely vulnerable to toxic chemicals in the environment and helped to secure passage of the Food Quality Protection Act of 1996, the only federal environmental law in the United States that contains explicit protections for the health of children. It led also to establishment of EPA’s Office of Children’s Health Protection.  Dr. Landrigan was a leader in developing the National Children’s Study, the largest epidemiological study of children’s health and the environment ever launched in the United States.  He has been centrally involved in the medical and epidemiologic studies that followed the destruction of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.  He has consulted extensively to the World Health Organization.  Dr. Landrigan currently chairs The Lancet-Mount Sinai Global Commission on Pollution & Health.

Dr. Landrigan is a graduate of Boston Latin School, Boston College, Harvard Medical School and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. He is a 41-year veteran of the US Public Health Service and the US Navy.