Professor Todd measures lead in bone, to assess cumulative lead exposure; directs the Insulators’ Tissue Bank, an asbestos-related disease research biorepository he helped develop for the Heat and Frost Insulators & Allied Workers union; and co-directs the World Trade Center Health Program General Responder Data Center at Mount Sinai that manages WTCHP data for over 40,000 general responders involved in the rescue and recovery effort that followed the attacks on 9/11.
Professor Todd is a Ph.D. physicist who has developed, used and made widely accessible noninvasive in vivo X-Ray Fluorescence to assess cumulative lead exposure, both in epidemiological studies of human health effects and in cases referred to him globally. Professor Todd holds a PhD in Physics from The University of Birmingham in England. He is a Research Professor in the Department of Environmental Medicine and Public Health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, where he has been a faculty member since 1992. He was formerly a Visiting Professor at The University of Maryland (Baltimore), Program in Toxicology, and he remains an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Johns Hopkins University, Bloomberg School of Public Health.
As Principal Investigator of numerous NIH-funded studies and a co-investigator on many others, Professor Todd’s research has centered on both the development of in vivo bone lead measurements for the assessment of long-term lead exposure and on the application of those techniques to studies of human health research. This work has been performed across the US and in several countries around the world, resulting in nearly 200 peer-reviewed publications. He has reviewed for the National Institutes of Health and the American Public Health Association, and for Environmental Research, Environmental Health Perspectives, JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association), Medical Physics and Physics in Medicine and Biology. He is a Contributing Editor to the American Journal of Industrial Medicine.
In the aftermath of the WTC attacks, Professor Todd led all non-medical aspects of the continued provision of medical evaluation and subsequent treatment of WTC rescue and recovery workers. His compelling grant application to site the WTC General Responder Data Center at Mount Sinai was awarded in 2002, in which all data acquisition, structure, security and management are provided for the entire WTC Medical Consortium. Professor Todd is currently the Co-Director of this Center at Mount Sinai.
Professor Todd also developed, obtained funding for and now directs a national tissue collection effort for lung cancer and mesothelioma tissue from asbestos-exposed workers and their families.
Education
PhD, University of Birmingham
Professor Todd has been cited as the recognized world expert in his field and has made Mount Sinai the global epicenter for requests for his definitive assessment of cumulative lead exposure. These studies have examined renal function, cardiovascular function/disease and cognitive function in populations of both occupationally and non-occupationally exposed adults, children, local, national and international referrals, death-row inmates and even skull fragments of Beethoven. The goal of his research is to advance the scientific understanding of the associations between the amount of lead in our bodies and its health effects. Bone lead measurements are the most thorough and reliable way to detect and measure lead in humans, since 95 percent or more of lead in the body is stored in the skeleton. In the absence of documented exposure, the information obtained from bone lead measurements can provide evidence of historical lead exposure. His X-Ray Fluorescence Bone-Lead Testing Facility is primarily focused on research, measuring volunteer subjects participating in federally funded research studies, when there are such studies that are actively seeking volunteers. People who are referred to the facility by physicians are also measured: they have been diagnosed with symptoms of lead toxicity and/or their physicians are concerned about lead exposures the patients may have suffered in the past. Occupational physicians and public health researchers in Taiwan, South Africa, Yugoslavia, S. Korea, Mexico and Turkey have all worked with Professor Todd to improve the situation in their countries. In the U.S., he has provided the bone lead measurements for ~30 investigators at 23 institutions, on 27 projects that have resulted in close to 170 unsolicited, peer-reviewed journal papers and peer-reviewed conference papers and abstracts. This body of work has shown, among many things, that lead has 80% of the neurodegenerative effect of age, and has resulted in the first proposal for bone lead XRF measurements to be written into OSHA lead standards.
Physicians and scientists on the faculty of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai often interact with pharmaceutical, device and biotechnology companies to improve patient care, develop new therapies and achieve scientific breakthroughs. In order to promote an ethical and transparent environment for conducting research, providing clinical care and teaching, Mount Sinai requires that salaried faculty inform the School of their relationships with such companies.
Dr. Todd did not report having any of the following types of financial relationships with industry during 2019 and/or 2020: consulting, scientific advisory board, industry-sponsored lectures, service on Board of Directors, participation on industry-sponsored committees, equity ownership valued at greater than 5% of a publicly traded company or any value in a privately held company. Please note that this information may differ from information posted on corporate sites due to timing or classification differences.
Mount Sinai's faculty policies relating to faculty collaboration with industry are posted on our website. Patients may wish to ask their physician about the activities they perform for companies.