John Rosen M.D.

Rosen, M.D, John F..
John F. Rosen, M.D., Leader in protecting children against lead poisoning, dies at 77. Dr. John F. Rosen, Professor of Pediatrics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Head of the Division of Environmental Sciences at The Children's Hospital at Montefiore, was a pediatric metabolism expert who redefined the fight against childhood lead poisoning in America. He died on December 7 in Greenwich, Connecticut. He was 77. After graduating from the Columbia University College of Physicians and surgeons, and while working in the 1960's on the metabolic processes of heavy metal poisoning at the Rockefeller University, Dr. Rosen began to see the harmful impact of metal toxicity in children. His research particularly began to focus on the effects of metal poisoning on underprivileged children living in New York City's substandard housing. He had grown up in a household of social and medical activism. His parents, Dr. Samuel Rosen and Helen Rosen had been substantially involved in the liberal and civil rights movements of the post-World War II period, from Henry Wallace's campaign in 1948 to sheltering Paul Robeson after the Peekskill Riots and his father - an ear surgeon who invented the "Rosen Stapes" operation for addressing deafness - had been known for visiting China and meeting Chou En Lai before the country was opened to Americans in 1972. Dr. Rosen broadened the family activism into an adjunct on the war on poverty by aiding children, moving professionally in 1969 to Montefiore Medical Center where he was to become a Professor of Pediatrics and the Head of the Division of Environmental Sciences at The Children's Hospital, which came to have the nation's largest lead clinic. In the 1970's, his work focused increasingly on pediatric lead poisoning, and he became, as The New York Times recognized in 1992, a national authority on lead hazards for children. His research, and that of others, increasingly demonstrated that traditional measures of lead poisoning were too lenient and needed lowering to counter the deleterious impact of lead poisoning on cognitive development. In 1985 and in 1991, he chaired the Centers for Disease Control Committee on Preventing Childhood Lead Poisoning, which established new and lowered national guidelines on the definition of lead poisoning, and its treatment and prevention. He also worked with numerous other committees, including The National Academy of Science and the National Research Council Committee on Low level Lead Exposure in Susceptible Populations, as well as speaking at innumerable national and international conferences and publishing over one hundred studies. In addition, he was a pioneer of the use of x-ray fluorescence to measure bone lead levels and since the effects of lead poisoning are not reversible, Dr. Rosen focused on prevention by removing lead paint from apartments and schools. His passion for protecting and aiding children was legendary, and often led to contentious situations. When he was not serving as an expert for the EPA in toxic waste lawsuits, he would take it and other governmental agencies to task for not doing enough. In 1992, when parents at PS 3 in Manhattan were concerned about the school's peeling paint, they reached out to Dr. Rosen, who termed the school a "toxic dump." At a press conference, he pulled paint chips off the wall and his efforts led to the school's widely publicized - and controversial - closing and clean-up. In addition to his work in the United States, Dr. Rosen was instrumental in setting up lead poisoning monitoring programs internationally. He travelled to Nicaragua to address the problem of leaded gasoline. He worked with the Shanghai Children's Medical Center and the Shanghai Second Medical School from 1982 to 2010 to develop lead poisoning treatment centers in China. One of Dr. Rosen's proudest accomplishments was the establishment of Montefiore's Safe House for Lead Poisoning Prevention. At the Safe House, a comprehensive approach to addressing lead problems is provided for families, including not just temporary shelter in a lead-free environment but also education and family support. Dr. Rosen died in Greenwich after a four-year battle with cancer. He was the son of Helen Rosen and Dr. Samuel Rosen, a renowned ear surgeon. He is survived by his wife, Margaret Hiatt of Stamford, Connecticut, his three children, Carlo Rosen, M.D., Ellis Lesser, and Emily Reilley, and nine grandchildren.