Association Between World Trade Center Disaster Exposures and Body Mass Index in Community Members Enrolled at World Trade Center Environmental Health Center

Details

• Personal Author:
  Alptekin R ; Goldring RM ; Liu M ; Oppenheimer BW ; Reibman J ; Shao Y ; Wang Y
• Description:
  Studies suggest that environmental disasters have a big impact on population health conditions including metabolic risk factors, such as obesity and hypertension. The World Trade Center (WTC) destruction from the 9/11 terrorist attack resulted in environmental exposures to community members (Survivors) with potential for metabolic effects. We now examine the impact of WTC exposure on Body Mass Index (BMI) using the data from 7136 adult participants enrolled in the WTC Environmental Health Center (EHC) from August 1, 2005, to December 31, 2022. We characterized WTC-related exposures by multiple approaches including acute dust-cloud exposure, occupational or residential exposures, and latent exposure patterns identified by synthesizing multiplex exposure questions using latent class analysis. Employing multivariable linear and quantile regressions for continuous BMI and ordered logistic regression for BMI categories, we found significant associations of BMI with WTC exposure categories or latent exposure patterns. For example, using exposure categories, compared to the group of local residents, local workers exhibited an average BMI increase of 1.71 kg/m2 with 95% confidence intervals (CI) of (1.33, 2.09), the rescue/recovery group had an increase of 3.13 kg/m2 (95% CI: 2.18, 4.08), the clean-up worker group had an increase of 0.75 kg/m2 (95% CI: 0.09, 1.40), and the other mixer group had an increase of 1.01 kg/m2 (95% CI: 0.43, 1.58). Furthermore, quantile regression analysis demonstrated that WTC exposures adversely affected the entire distribution of BMI in the WTC EHC Survivors, not merely the average. Our analysis also extended to blood pressure and hypertension, demonstrating statistically significant associations with WTC exposures. These outcomes highlight the intricate connection between WTC exposures and metabolic risk factors including BMI and blood pressure in the WTC Survivor population. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Cohort Studies Dust Environmental Exposure Occupational Health Safety September 11 Terrorist Attacks
• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: Blood Pressure Blood Pressure BMI Body Mass Index Cohort Studies Disaster Sites Dust Exposure Environmental Exposure Survivor Cohort World Trade Center World Trade Center 9/11 Disaster WTC

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• ISSN:
  0269-7491
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement ; Contract
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  New York ; New York City Region [OSHA]
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  365
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20070350
• Citation:
  Environ Pollut 2025 Jan; 365:125414
• Contact Point Address:
  Mengling Liu, Department of Population Health, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, 180 Madison, New York, NY 10016, USA
• Email:
  mengling.liu@nyulangone.org
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2025
• Performing Organization:
  New York University School of Medicine
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20230701
• Source Full Name:
  Environmental Pollution
• End Date:
  20260630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:86efbfcbb2353fe539174d5ef1b455a3d8293a5f24ab4c61b3a1c77f0ca6a1732d2d49764fd638ef57a2fe75c5cf8d3d90ad18f5ec5cbbe8e1ee269f1847c954
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/208582/cdc_208582_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.50 MB ]