Dr. Landrigan is a pediatrician and an international leader in public health and preventive medicine. His pioneering research on the effects of lead poisoning in children led the U.S. government to mandate removal of lead from gasoline and paint, actions that have produced a more than 90% reduction in incidence of childhood lead poisoning over the past 25 years. 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. The findings of the NAS Committee secured passage of the Food Quality Protection Act in 1996, a major U.S. federal pesticide law and the first environmental statute to contain specific protections for infants and children. Dr. Landrigan served as Senior Advisor to the U.S, Environmental Protection Agency where he was instrumental in helping to establish the EPA’s Office of Children’s Health Protection. Dr. Landrigan has been a leader in developing the National Children’s Study, the largest study of children’s health and the environment ever launched in the United States.
