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• On August 3, 3025, we will publish a major paper in The Lancet announcing the launch if the Lancet Countdown on Health and Plastics. This is a joint project of Boston College and Heidelberg University.听 听听
  • Launch of this Countdown will coincide with the expected finalization of the UN Global Plastics Treaty. It will be an independent, indicator-based, health-focused 听global monitoring system: that identifies, tracks, and regularly report on a suite of geographically and temporally representative indicators that monitor progress toward reducing plastic exposures and mitigating plastics鈥� harms to human and planetary health.
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• In January 2025, we published a major paper titled, 鈥淭he benefits of removing toxic chemicals from plastics鈥�, in the听Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 121 No. 0,e2412714121.听
  • In this paper, we provide evidence of the health benefits of reducing chemical exposures in plastics. For the year 2015, we estimate that eliminating exposures to BPA and DEHP in countries constituting one-third of the world鈥檚 population would have saved approximately 600,000 lives. Reducing PBDEs to threshold levels in 2015 for women giving birth in countries accounting for 20% of global births would have saved approximately 11.7 million Intelligence Quotient (IQ) points.
    
    
• In March 2023, we released a comprehensive analysis of Plastics and Human Health in听Annals of Global Health:听doi.org/10.5334/aogh.4056. We found that plastics are closely linked to climate change because 99% of all plastics are made from fossil carbon, and because plastic production generates more greenhouse gases each year than Brazil. The study鈥檚 main findings were that听pollution causes harms to human health at every stage of the plastic life cycle 鈥� in production, use and disposal, and that these harms fall disproportionately upon the poor.
  • We have presented our findings in-person in Geneva, Switzerland to the World Health Organization and the UN Environment Programme.
  • Our recommendations are shaping the Global Treaty on Plastics, which is currently in fast-track development under the auspices of the UN Environment Programme.

• January 2025: Published a major paper titled 鈥淢anufactured Chemicals and Children鈥檚 Health: The Need for New Law鈥� in The New England Journal of Medicine. DOI:
  
  
• October 2024: Published a systematic review on air pollution and cognitive impairment in children.
  • Alter NC, Whitman EM, Bellinger DC, Landrigan PJ. Quantifying the association between PM2.5 air pollution and IQ loss in children: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Environmental Health 2024; 23:101.
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• June 2024: Published the Second Edition of the Landrigan-Etzel Textbook of Children鈥檚 Environmental Health with Oxford University Press. This is the major textbook in the field.
  ISBN: 9780197662533
  
  
• February 2024: In partnership with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, published a review article titled 鈥淓nvironmental Exposure and Child Health in China鈥� in Environment International. DOI:

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• In July 2022, we completed a study of the burden of disease and death caused each year by climate change and air pollution in the cities and town of Massachusetts. This work was supported by the Barr Foundation of Boston and published in the journal, Environmental Health: doi: 10.1186/s12940-022-00879-3. We found, despite great improvements in air quality over the past 50 years, that current levels of climate-related air pollution are responsible for nearly 3,000 premature, preventable deaths each year in Massachusetts and that these deaths occur in every city and town at every income level across the state. We found additionally that air pollution is responsible each year for the loss of 2 million IQ points in Massachusetts children. We argued that a rapid statewide transition to clean, renewable energy is the most effective strategy for slowing climate change and preventing air pollution in Massachusetts.
  • To further disseminate the study鈥檚 findings and make them available to policy makers and the public, we have built a publicly accessible website:
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• In March 2022, we published a progress update on the Lancet Commission on Pollution and Health in Lancet Planetary Health: doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196 (22)00090-0.
  • This analysis confirms the Lancet Commission鈥檚 2018 findings:
    • Pollution in all its forms is closely related to climate change.
    • Pollution continues to be responsible for an estimated 9 million premature deaths globally per year and for massive economic losses.
  • The report argues the need for redoubled global efforts in the transition to clean energy and pollution prevention.
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• In 2020 and 2021, with support from the UN Environment Programme, we undertook analyses of the health and economic impacts of air pollution in India and Africa. Both of these reports that were published in Lancet Planetary Health: doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196 (20)30298-9 and doi: 10.1016/S2542-5196(21)00201-1. Both argued that a rapid transition to clean, renewable energy is the most effective strategy for slowing climate change, preventing air pollution, and securing these countries鈥� futures.
  • These studies are now shaping health and economic policy in India and Africa听

• June 2024: Published an international review article in Nature Reviews Cardiology titled 鈥淪oil and Water Pollution and Cardiovascular Disease.鈥�
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• March 2024: Published a report titled 鈥淭he Burden of Cardiovascular Disease from Air Pollution in Rwanda鈥� in Annals of Global Health. Main Finding: Ambient air pollution is an emerging but preventable cause of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in sub-Saharan Africa. DOI:

• In April 2024, with support from the World Resources Institute, the Observatory undertook a major analysis of the impacts of ocean health on human health. We found that a healthy ocean is essential for human health, but that the ocean is under threat from climate change, pollution, sea surface warming and ocean acidification. If humanity is to continue to benefit from the ocean, we must address global threats to the ocean such as climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss through equitable partnerships, rigorous enforcement of laws and treaties, robust monitoring, and metrics that evaluate both the ocean鈥檚 natural capital and human well- being. This endeavor must explicitly prioritize human rights, equity, sustainability, and social justice. Reports that emerged from this research are the following:
  • Fleming LE, Landrigan PJ, Ashford OS, Whitman EM, et al. Enhancing Human Health and Wellbeing Through Sustainably and Equitably Unlocking a Healthy Ocean鈥檚 Potential. Annals of Global Health. July 2024. https://doi.org/10.5334/aogh.4471
  • Fleming LE Landrigan PJ, Ashford OS, Whitman EM, et al. How can a Healthy Ocean Improve Human Health & Enhance Wellbeing on a Rapidly Changing Planet? April, 2024.
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• In 2019 and 2020, we conducted a study of Human Health and Ocean Pollution in partnership with the Centre Scientifique de Monaco and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and supported by the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation. This report was published in Annals of Global Health:
  • We cited the Boston Harbor clean-up as a highly successful and cost-effective case study of ocean pollution control.
  • Extensive media interviews and publicity followed release of this report.
  • The report has raised global consciousness of the impacts of ocean pollution and underscored the reality that ocean pollution can be prevented