All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality in a Cohort of WTC-Exposed and Non-WTC-Exposed Firefighters [2022]

Details

• Personal Author:
  Boffetta P ; Cannon M ; Hall CB ; Prezant DJ ; Singh A ; Webber MP ; Zeig-Owens R
• Description:
  Background: Studies show that rescue/recovery workers who responded to the World Trade Center (WTC) disaster had reduced mortality compared with general populations, but findings may be influenced by the healthy worker effect or access to care. No study has compared mortality in WTC-exposed workers to that in a comparable occupational cohort. Objective: To compare mortality rates in WTC-exposed Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY) firefighters vs in a comparison cohort of similarly healthy non-WTC-exposed firefighters from other cities. Methods: 10,786 male WTC-exposed FDNY firefighters and 8,813 male non-WTC-exposed firefighters from the Chicago, Philadelphia and San Francisco fire departments who were employed on 9/11/01 (9/11) were included in the analyses. WTC-exposed firefighters receive routine health monitoring, even after retirement, via the WTC Health Program (WTCHP). Follow-up began on 9/11 and ended at the earliest of the following: death date or 12/31/16. Death dates and causes of death were obtained from the National Death Index, and demographic data from the fire departments. Poisson regression models estimated RRs of all-cause and cause-specific mortality in WTC-exposed vs non-WTC-exposed firefighters, controlling for age and race. Results: WTC-exposed firefighters were younger on 9/11 than the non-WTC-exposed (mean+/-SD=40.4+/-7.4 vs 43.9+/-9.2 yrs). Between 9/11/01-12/31/16, there were 261 deaths among WTC-exposed firefighters and 605 deaths among non-WTC-exposed. After controlling for age and race, WTC-exposed firefighters had lower rates of mortality from all causes, cancer, heart disease and respiratory diseases (figure). Conclusion: In the first 15 years post 9/11, we observed significantly lower mortality rates in WTC-exposed firefighters compared with non-WTC-exposed firefighters. Better mortality outcomes in the WTC-exposed cohort may be a result of the free routine health monitoring, including cancer screenings, that they receive as part of the WTCHP. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Cohort Studies Emergency Responders Firefighters Mortality Occupational Health Safety September 11 Terrorist Attacks
• Keywords:
  Cohort Studies Disaster Recovery Fire Fighters Mortality Rates Rescue Workers World Trade Center WTC
• Publisher:
  Society for Epidemiologic Research
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Abstract or Summary
• Place as Subject:
  California ; Illinois ; New York ; OSHA Region 2 ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 5 ; OSHA Region 9 ; Pennsylvania
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20069624
• Citation:
  52nd Annual Society for Epidemiologic Research (SER) Meeting, June 14-17, 2022, Chicago, Illinois. Clearfield, UT: Society for Epidemiologic Research, 2022 Jun; :305
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2022
• Performing Organization:
  Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20190101
• End Date:
  20230831
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:bdc4e9de695704ccd8901b088847701ddb1f52197347e8bf82aaf5c81556e0cb7121efa60c0e9333e93f0a229eeefef9e8acf05cb9bcbbdf8a5f47242b5aea9a
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/208014/cdc_208014_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 211.40 KB ]