• Press Release

Mount Sinai Names Environmental Health Laboratory to Honor the Late Senator Frank R. Lautenberg

  • NEW YORK, NY
  • (June 24, 2015)

Leaders from the Mount Sinai Health System formally dedicated the Senator Frank R. Lautenberg Environmental Health Sciences Laboratory, named in recognition of the late Senator’s tireless efforts to address children’s environmental health concerns during almost 30 years in Congress. Located on the campus of The Mount Sinai Hospital, the Lautenberg Laboratory brings together a team of physicians and researchers to analyze threats to pediatric health from air pollution and household chemicals, as well as social stressors and nutrition.

“Senator Lautenberg was a long-time friend of Mount Sinai and a true champion of children and their families,” said David L. Reich, MD, President and Chief Operating Officer of The Mount Sinai Hospital. “His vision was the same as ours—to support legislation and conduct research to identify environmental causes of childhood disease. From our Children’s Environmental Health Center to this new Laboratory, we are not just examining the links between toxic exposures and childhood illness – we are also translating our research findings into solutions that protect children’s health, educate the public, and help change public policy.”

“To prevent and cure chronic illness in children—and advance the field of children’s environmental health—we must transcend existing approaches and employ new techniques that enable us to understand how, when, where, and to what degree environmental chemicals enter the body,” said Philip J. Landrigan, MD, MSc, the Ethel H. Wise Professor and Chair, Department of Preventive Medicine, Dean for Global Health and Professor of Pediatrics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Director of the Children’s Environmental Health Center (CEHC) at The Mount Sinai Hospital. “Since innovation translates into increased knowledge, results generated in the Laboratory will serve as the foundation for real strategies that promote healthier children for generations to come – just as Senator Lautenberg would have wanted.”

There are more than 80,000 chemicals registered for industrial use in the United States, found in household cleaning products, pesticides, artificial turf fields and other items. At the Senator Frank R. Lautenberg Environmental Health Sciences Laboratory, Mount Sinai researchers endeavor to better understand the health impact of these chemicals using the latest technologies. The work done at the Lautenberg Laboratory will include:

  • Developing groundbreaking analytical methods to assess chemical exposures and the timing of past chemical exposures
  • Expanding the scope of research to include areas such as air pollution, metals, organics, chemical mixtures, epigenetics, and the fetal origins of adult diseases
  • Bringing together scientists with different backgrounds and approaches to environmental health and complex diseases

“With the Lautenberg Laboratory, we are creating the kind of scientific milieu that will foster innovation, encourage the cross-pollination of ideas, and revolutionize how children’s environmental health research is conducted,” said Robert O. Wright, MD, MPH, Professor and Vice Chair of the Department of Preventive Medicine at Mount Sinai and Founding Director of the Senator Frank R. Lautenberg Environmental Health Sciences Laboratory; Dr. Wright will take over as Chair of Preventive Medicine from Dr. Landrigan on July 1. “We designed this place to study not just a handful of compounds, but to address the thousands of chemicals in our environment that have never been studied. This unique, novel approach to environmental science puts us at the cutting edge of a new era in research, bridging environmental health with ‘Big Data’ and increasing our understanding of how environment affects health and development.”

“My father’s deep concern for environmental and children’s health issues was reflected in his legislative priorities: he vigorously fought to protect children’s health while in the Senate, and in fact there’s a bill currently making its way through Congress called the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety Act,” said Ellen Lautenberg, daughter of the late Senator. “He would be proud to know that the Laboratory is up and running, helping to identify potential environmental hazards and thus protecting the health and safety of our children. We’re proud that Mount Sinai has helped make my father’s vision a reality and we look forward to all the good work being done here.”

To learn more about the Senator Frank R. Lautenberg Environmental Health Sciences Laboratory, visit http://labs.icahn.mssm.edu/lautenberglab.

About the Mount Sinai Health System

Mount Sinai Health System is one of the largest academic medical systems in the New York metro area, with more than 47,000 employees working across seven hospitals, more than 400 outpatient practices, more than 600 research and clinical labs, a school of nursing, and leading schools of medicine and graduate education. Mount Sinai advances health for all people, everywhere, by taking on the most complex health care challenges of our time—discovering and applying new scientific learning and knowledge; developing safer, more effective treatments; educating the next generation of medical leaders and innovators; and supporting local communities by delivering high-quality care to all who need it. 

Through the integration of its hospitals, labs, and schools, Mount Sinai offers comprehensive health care from conception through geriatrics, leveraging innovative approaches such as artificial intelligence and informatics while keeping patients’ medical and emotional needs at the center of all treatment. The Health System includes more than 6,400 primary and specialty care physicians and 10 free-standing joint-venture centers throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, Long Island, and Florida. Hospitals within the System are consistently ranked by Newsweek’s® “The World’s Best Smart Hospitals,” “Best in State Hospitals,” “World’s Best Hospitals,” and  “Best Specialty Hospitals” and by U.S. News & World Report's® “Best Hospitals” and “Best Children’s Hospitals.” The Mount Sinai Hospital is on the U.S. News & World Report® “Best Hospitals” Honor Roll for 2025-2026.  

For more information, visit https://www.mountsinai.org or find Mount Sinai on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, and YouTube.

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