Health & Socioeconomic Sequelae of the WTC Disaster

Details

• Personal Author:
  Moline J
• Description:
  WTC responders' health status was evaluated using self-reported questionnaire data from the inception of the WTC Health Program to 2010. This project identified an elevated rate of asthma prevalence compared to the general population after adjusting for age and gender. To minimize the Healthy Worker Effect, which can erroneously infer that the exposed group is likely have a protective effect or no increased health effect when compared to unexposed group, the occupation of WTC responders was matched with the general population. This project also identified that WTC responders who developed new onset asthma after the WTC exposure were more likely to lose their full-time job status. There is no plausible biological explanation for a direct causal relationship between WTC exposure and lowered socioeconomic status. However, a secondary link was identified in which increased asthma incidence in our cohort was linked to lowered socioeconomic status among responders. This is an important finding which indicates that despite the lack of direct causative relationship, exposure to the WTC disaster can result in a reduction in SES for those exposed. Therefore, these findings are critical to consider when addressing their negative impacts for WTC responders. This project also found that new onset of probable rheumatoid arthritis has increased, which signals an association with WTC exposure may not be strong enough and has not been considered a WTC-related condition. Additionally, analysis showed a strong and clear protective effect on probable rheumatoid arthritis among those who used a respirator in the first week after 9/11. This finding suggests that personal level WTC exposure might be significantly different from group level exposure characteristics which have been used in WTC health research, such as time of arrival at the WTC site, duration of work, location of work, and tasks performed. Overall we were not able to conclude our findings with great confidence because of potential epidemiologic bias effects. Through the project, we identified several potential biases which can obscure the true association between WTC exposure and adverse health outcomes. It is important to evaluate the potential bias effects before concluding any of our findings. The bias analysis has been funded and currently in progress. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Emergency Responders Epidemiology Firefighters Fires Law Enforcement Occupational Health Safety Surveys And Questionnaires
• Keywords:
  Emergency-responders Fire-fighters Fire-hazards Paramedical-services Police-officers Questionnaires Sociological-factors Sociology Statistical-analysis
• Series:
  Grant Final Reports
• Publisher:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Final Cooperative Agreement Report
• Place as Subject:
  New York ; OSHA Region 2
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  OEP - Office of Extramural Programs
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-93
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20047357
• Citation:
  Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, U01-OH-010399, 2015 Nov; :1-93
• Contact Point Address:
  Jacqueline Moline, MD, MSc, FACP, FACOEM, North Shore-LIJ Health System, 175 Community Drive, Suite 201, Great Neck, NY 11021
• Email:
  JMoline@nshs.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2016
• Performing Organization:
  Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, Manhasset, New York
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20120901
• Source Full Name:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• End Date:
  20150831
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:370c792fcc15eed0ca47cca4493932022ee6970147250a66d9d0237b4452a46e93ebae7295ec80e4e1329c4501ac566614afefcf361c4dc081ed6085c07bc2c8
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/218624/cdc_218624_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 2.51 MB ]