The public health response to the World Trade Center attack and its aftermath by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene

Details

• Personal Author:
  Brackbill RM ; Marsik T ; Weisfuse IB
• Description:
  The destruction of the World Trade Center (WTC) posed immediate and long-term public health and mental health challenges to the City of New York, some of which are still prominent a decade later. This chapter will review (a) emergency management immediately following the attacks of September 11, 2001 (9/11), (b) its effect on preparedness for the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (the Department), and (c) two projects to address long-term problems that emerged after the immediate response: Project Liberty and the World Trade Center Health Registry. At the time of the attack, the Department consisted of two separate mayoral agencies: the New York City Department of Health (DOH) and the New York City Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Alcohol (DMH)-although both were overseen by the same commissioner. This chapter will present the activities of both agencies and the department created by the merger of the two agencies in 2002. Conclusion: Mitigation of the short- and long-term health effects of the World Trade Center attack was achieved by the cooperative work of many public health agencies. The experience transformed emergency preparedness and response within the Department and other agencies and organizations. We believe that the experience and lessons learned will improve the response to future public health emergencies. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Disaster Planning Emergencies Mental Health Occupational Health Public Health Safety September 11 Terrorist Attacks
• Keywords:
  Emergency-response Emergency Preparedness Mental-health Public-health World Trade Center WTC
• ISBN:
  9780199765546
• Publisher:
  Oxford University Press
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Book
• Place as Subject:
  New York ; OSHA Region 2
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  43-66
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20047477
• Citation:
  Terrorism and public health: a balanced approach to strengthening systems and protecting people, second edition. Levy BS, Sidel VW eds. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011 Nov; :43-66
• Editor(s):
  Levy BS; Sidel VW
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2012
• Performing Organization:
  New York City Health/Mental Hygiene
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20090430
• Source Full Name:
  Terrorism and public health: a balanced approach to strengthening systems and protecting people, second edition
• End Date:
  20260630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:a2a6fdf0c30e495776c8508fe175b7145d8715b4bd14c2386e61d349b5c97e1850f07ae6529eb4faa7a5c15f6c466bad267f01852821275ed48cfebee7409abb
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/202533/cdc_202533_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 7.20 MB ]