Prior posts have noted studies of the adverse health impacts of exposure to the airborne waste products of the collapse of the World Trade Center twin towers. A new study has found that as a result of exposure to 9-11 events and airborne wastes, as many as 25,500 people have developed asthma. Even more, an estimated 61,000 have experienced post-trauma stress and related mental health problems after witnessing the twin towers fall; approximately 409 thousand were in the vicinity of the collapse.
Using telephone, e-mail and in-person interviews, researchers created a health registry by surveying more than 70,000 of the 409,000 in 2003 and 2004 and contacting 46,000 in a second survey in 2006 and 2007. Survey participants were all adults and included office workers, residents of the area, passersby and rescue workers. The new data show that more than 10% of exposed people who did not have asthma before the attack developed the breathing disorder during the six years afterward; normally, according to the researchers, less than 3% of the adult population would be expected to develop asthma over a six-year period. Not surprisingly, the hardest hit were rescuers who worked on the rubble pile. The survey shows that 21 percent of those workers with no previous history of asthma have developed it since the disaster. Even among passersby with no history of the ailment (most of whom spent less than a day in the dust) the asthma incidence is now nearly 9 percent. [This again demonstrates the deadly nature of the dust cloud that formed, and also again shows the shameful conduct of key EPA personnel who rushed to “assure” the public that the dust and debris did not pose a significant risk.]
Although the number of new asthma cases among people in this registry declined between surveys, the percentage reporting post-trauma stress symptoms in the second survey was higher than in the first. Among those near the towers on September 11 who reported no traumatic stress before the attacks, 14 percent reported symptoms of it in the first survey and 19 percent in the second survey. About half of those reporting emotional stress several years after the event said they did not seek care for it, suggesting their quality of life may be suffering, according to the researchers.
The data from those contacted was extrapolated to the 409,000 people in the towers’ vicinity. The researchers thus estimate that conservatively 25,500 people may have developed new asthma and 61,000 may have experienced post-trauma stress since the disaster.