Herbert Needleman

American researcher

Herbert Leroy Needleman (December 13, 1927 – July 18, 2017) researched the neurodevelopmental damage caused by lead poisoning. He was a pediatrician, child psychiatrist, researcher and professor at the University of Pittsburgh, an elected member of the Institute of Medicine, and the founder of the Alliance to End Childhood Lead Poisoning (later known as the Alliance for Healthy Homes, it has since merged with the National Center for Healthy Housing). Dr. Needleman played a key role in securing some of the most significant environmental health protections achieved during the 20th century, which resulted in a fivefold reduction in the prevalence of lead poisoning among children in the United States by the early 1990s. Despite engendering strong resistance from lead related industries, which made him the target of frequent attacks, Needleman persisted in campaigning to educate stakeholders, including parents and government panels, about the dangers of lead poisoning. Needleman has been credited with having played a key role in triggering environmental safety measures that have reduced average blood lead levels by an estimated 78 percent between 1976 and 1991. He died in Pittsburgh in 2017.

Needleman earned his BS from Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania in 1948, and his MD from the University of Pennsylvania in 1952. He was Jewish. He trained in pediatrics at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and served as Chief Resident. Needleman completed a fellowship in pediatric cardiology and rheumatic fever through the National Institutes of Health. After practicing family pediatrics in Philadelphia and neonatology at Pennsylvania Hospital, Dr. Needleman completed a residency in psychiatry at Temple University Health Sciences Center, also in Philadelphia. From 1970 to 1972, he was an assistant professor of psychiatry at Temple University, and from 1972 to 1981, he was a professor at Harvard University Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. From 1981, he was a professor of child psychiatry and pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

In the 1970s, Needleman conducted a study at Harvard Medical School that yielded strong evidence that lead, even at very low levels, can affect a child's IQ. By measuring levels of lead in children’s deciduous teeth, Needleman provided the first evidence that low level lead exposure at the time these teeth were formed not only reduces IQ levels, but also shortens attention spans and delays acquisition of language proficiency. In studies that followed, he determined that lead poisoning had long term implications for a child's attentiveness, behavior, and academic success. In 1979, Needleman began the first large scale study of intelligence and behavior in children with no outward signs of lead poisoning. His research showed that lead exposure is associated with an increased risk for failure to graduate from high school and for reading disabilities. His research involved testing the concentration of lead in bones of 194 juveniles, between the ages of twelve and eighteen, who had been convicted in the Allegheny County Juvenile Court, and 146 students in regular high schools in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania who did not have behavioral problems. In 1996, findings from the research, reporting on the physical and behavioral problems caused by leaded gasoline and lead paint while linking lead exposure to anti social behavior, were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The study found that delinquent children were four times more likely to have elevated concentrations of lead in their bones. According to Needleman, "Lead is a brain poison that interferes with the ability to restrain impulses. It's a life experience which gets into biology and increases a child's risk for doing bad things." After extensive scientific review, Needleman's findings were instrumental in convincing the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to issue guidelines for the diagnosis and management of lead poisoning in children, in goading the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to mandate the removal of lead from gasoline, and in inducing the Consumer Product Safety Commission to ban lead from interior paints. Needleman's research also helped cause the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to remove lead from thousands of housing units across the US. Needleman designed the first forward study of lead exposure during gestation, and showed that such exposure is associated with cognitive deficits later in life. His most recent research has shown that boys with high levels of lead concentrated in their bones are more likely to develop aggressive or delinquent behavior, such as bullying, vandalism and shoplifting.

In their book, Raising Children Toxic Free: How to Keep Your Child Safe from Lead, Asbestos, Pesticides, and Other Environmental Hazards (1996), Needleman and Philip J. Landrigan offer advice for parents and physicians on how to evaluate and minimize toxic exposure risks, which include lead, asbestos, pesticides, and other toxins. The authors also address practical means for ensuring community compliance with existing laws.

While an associate professor at Temple University's School of Medicine, Needleman was the chairman of the Committee of Responsibility (COR), throughout its existence between 1966 and 1974. COR, which sought to help civilians injured in the Vietnam War, was composed of medical personnel, scientists, clergymen, and citizens concerned about American involvement. In its efforts to assist injured Vietnamese children shelters were set up in Berkeley, California and Boston, Massachusetts, both called Vietnam House, and another in Saigon, where paraplegic children could be cared for and rehabilitated in their own country.