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December 7, 1995

Needleman gets Heinz Award

Psychiatry professor Herbert Needleman last week became the first Pittsburgh resident to win a $250,000 Heinz Award.

He received the 1995 Heinz Award in Environment for his research showing that even low-level exposure to lead can affect children's IQ and behavior, and for his efforts to eliminate lead products from the environment.

Needleman's research and public health crusading helped convince the federal government to ban lead from gasoline, paint, and food and beverage cans.

Teresa Heinz, widow of U.S. Sen. John Heinz, after whom the prizes are named, praised Needleman for "his central role in dramatically reducing childhood lead poisoning, for his pioneering research as a physician and child psychiatrist into the effects of low-level lead exposure on children, for his persistence in forcing governments and industry to confront the implications of his findings, and for the courage and dignity with which he fought off critics of his work." Lead industry forces have been attacking Needleman's research since the 1950s. In 1992, two psychologists accused Needleman of scientific misconduct for allegedly manipulating data in several studies. The charges led to a Pitt hearing board inquiry, which cleared Needleman of misconduct.

Filed under: Feature,Volume 28 Issue 8

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