The World Trade Center aftermath and its effects on health: understanding and learning through human-exposure science

Details

• Personal Author:
  Lioy PJ ; Pellizzari E ; Prezant D
• Description:
  The principles of human-exposure science are important for identifying and mitigating environmental-health problems. They permit the acquisition of knowledge to understand the environmental-health consequences of single and multiroute contacts with toxicants. Although a relatively young field, human-exposure science "is the study of human contact with chemical, physical, or biological agents occurring in their environments, and advances knowledge of the mechanisms and dynamics of events either causing or preventing adverse human health outcomes". As such, it should be central to the mitigation of exposures during and after catastrophic events such as the attack on the World Trade Center (WTC). Historically, a variety of conventional approaches have been used for measuring the "quality" of the environment. For example, air and water analyses have been used as surrogates for exposure when environmental risk-management decisions are made. Such efforts have been successful in understanding potential exposure to chemical, physical, or biological agents in situations when the agent is emitted by numerous sources or when there is an overwhelming contribution from a specific source or source types. The greatest difficulties associated with such strategies are defining the exposures that result from emissions by small, specific sources; intermittent sources; and/or acute toxic events. Typical attempts to examine these events have used "least-case" or "worst-case" exposure-characterization scenarios during the development of management decisions. Unfortunately, such scenarios usually lack a realistic scientific foundation for providing a practical solution, and they do not appropriately address the individual's or community's concerns. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Biological Products Chemistry Environmental Exposure Environmental Health Hazardous Substances Men Occupational Health Risk Assessment Risk Factors Safety Women

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• Keywords:
  Biological-agents Chemical-properties Emission-sources Environmental-exposure Environmental-health Exposure-levels Force Humans Physical-properties Risk-factors Toxins

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• ISSN:
  0013-936X
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  New York ; OSHA Region 2
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  40
• Issue:
  22
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20046191
• Citation:
  Environ Sci Technol 2006 Nov; 40(22):6876-6885
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2007
• Performing Organization:
  New York City Fire Department
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20040701
• Source Full Name:
  Environmental Science and Technology
• End Date:
  20110630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:21c9f7cc03f8d39307070ccf54f8174a220d8c477544379b5b731e00352e931efbaff11ffcff6c863f60aef1591a482c67facc51753fee8dfa5a6e2e8a2101aa
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/201317/cdc_201317_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 317.53 KB ]