• Press Release

Philip Landrigan Delivers Presentation on Environmental Contributors to Autism

Mount Sinai Children’s Environmental Health Center Director, Philip J. Landrigan, MD, MSc, outlines the need for expanding research into environmental causes of autism.

  • (July 16, 2010)

Philip J. Landrigan, MD, MSc, Director of the Mount Sinai Children’s Environmental Health Center (CEHC), delivered a presentation titled “What Causes Autism? The Case for an Environmental Contribution,” on July 16 at the Meeting of the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee in Bethesda, Maryland. The presentation outlined the need to expand research into environmental causes of autism.

As a federal advisory committee, the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee coordinates all efforts in the Department of Health and Human Services regarding autism spectrum disorder, and facilitates dialogue between public and federal investigators to ensure that these ideas are presented in a public forum.

Today’s children are surrounded by thousands of synthetic chemicals. According to Dr. Landrigan, 200 of these chemicals have been identified as neurotoxic in adult humans, and 1,000 additional chemicals have been identified as neurotoxic in laboratory models. However, fewer than 20 percent of these high-volume chemicals have been tested for neurodevelopmental toxicity.

To explore the possible contribution of early environmental exposures, Dr. Landrigan proposes a “targeted discovery strategy.” In a transdisciplinary effort, this research strategy focuses on highlighting target chemicals in today’s environment and devising a list of those that need to be studied most urgently as possible causes of autism.

Dr. Landrigan’s presentation builds on the Children’s Environmental Health Center’s newest initiative, the Autism and Learning Disabilities Discovery and Prevention Project, which was launched in May 2010.

Led by Dr. Landrigan and involving researchers from Mount Sinai, this project investigates the undiscovered causes of autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders, building the research infrastructure that we need to support our studies to examine the impacts of environmental chemicals on children’s health and early development.

Using results from these studies, the Autism and Learning Disabilities Discovery and Prevention Project seeks to turn these discoveries into a blueprint for prevention, employing skillful, evidence-based advocacy.

About the Children's Environmental Health Center

Mount Sinai's Children's Environmental Health Center conducts research to protect children against environmental threats to health. Our investigations seek to discover the environmental causes of such diseases as asthma, learning disabilities, autism, obesity, and childhood cancer. We transmit our research to pediatricians, policy makers, parents, and all who care for children.

About the Mount Sinai Health System

Mount Sinai Health System is one of the nation’s leading integrated academic health systems and one of the largest in the New York metropolitan area. Its comprehensive system includes seven hospitals, more than 400 outpatient practices, over 600 research and clinical laboratories, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, and the Mount Sinai Phillips School of Nursing. Together, the Health System comprises approximately 48,000 employees, more than 9,000 physicians, and 8,600 nurses.

As a leading learning health system, Mount Sinai combines clinical expertise with scientific discovery to improve patient care while training the next generation of health care and biomedical leaders. The Health System provides care across every stage of life, from prenatal care through geriatrics, while advancing personalized medicine through artificial intelligence, data science, and biomedical research.

Mount Sinai is consistently recognized among the nation’s leading academic health systems for patient care, research, and education. The Mount Sinai Hospital is ranked No. 1 in New York by Newsweek and No. 5 on the magazine’s World’s Best Hospitals list. The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai ranks No. 11 among U.S. medical schools and No. 1 among freestanding medical schools for National Institutes of Health funding, reflecting the strength of its scientific enterprise and leadership in biomedical research.

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