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Deputy Department Chair, Epidemiology
Associate Professor of Clinical Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health
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| Dr. Pam Factor-Litvak’s current research interests concern the biological relationships between environmental exposures and development. She is particularly interested
in in utero and early childhood exposures to heavy metals (e.g. lead, mercury), endocrine disrupting compounds (e.g. PCBs, organohalogen pesticides), and developmental and reproductive outcomes in late childhood, adolescence and
adulthood. Most of Dr. Factor-Litvak’s research utilizes birth cohorts, or groups of individuals born at particular times and in particular places. An example of this work concerns the Yugoslavia Study of Environmental Lead,
Pregnancy Outcomes and Child Development, a prospective cohort study of mother-child pairs, tracking the adverse association between lead exposure and IQ. A second cohort study of the National Collaborative Perinatal Project is tracing those adults in the cohort to ascertain specific health outcomes, in particular, if prenatal exposure to endocrine disrupting compounds is associated with persistent neurobehavioral problems and reproductive disorders in males. Dr. Factor-Litvak is also following a newly formed birth cohort in Norway, and exploring early screening and diagnostic instruments for autism and related disorders. She has recently completed two studies initiated due to public concerns, one, a study of the possible associations between mercury derived from dental restorations (silver-mercury fillings) and neuropsychological, neurological and psychiatric symptoms in adults, and second, an ecologic study of the relationships between residential proximity to hazardous
waste sites and school district based special education classifications of autism. Dr. Factor-Litvak has served on numerous NIH review committees and on a World Health Organization expert panel on endocrine disrupting chemicals.
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