Correction: Mortality Among Fire Department of the City of New York Rescue and Recovery Workers Exposed to the World Trade Center Disaster, 2001–2017

Details

• Personal Author:
  Colbeth, Hilary L. ; Hall, Charles B. ; Prezant, David J. ; Schwartz, Theresa M. ; Webber, Mayris P. ; Zeig-Owens, Rachel
• Description:
  The World Trade Center (WTC) attacks on 9/11/2001 have consistently been associated with elevated rates of physical and mental health morbidities, while evidence about mortality has been limited. We examined mortality between 9/12/2001 and 12/31/2017 among 15,431 WTC-exposed Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY) firefighters and emergency medical service providers (EMS), specifically assessing associations between intensity of WTC-exposure and mortality risk. Standardized mortality ratios (SMR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) compared FDNY cohort mortality with the US general population using life table analysis. Deaths were identified via linkage to the National Death Index. Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to identify associations between intensity of WTC-exposure and mortality, accounting for age, sex, race/ethnicity, smoking history, and other relevant confounders. We identified 546 deaths and a lower than expected all-cause mortality rate (SMR = 0.22; 95% CI, 0.20-0.24). No cause-specific SMRs were meaningfully elevated. Mortality hazard ratios showed no association or linear trend with level of WTC-exposure. Our results provide evidence of the healthy worker effect, despite exposure to the World Trade Center. More follow-up time may be needed to assess the full impact of WTC-exposure on mortality in this occupational population. Correction https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20166585: We found an error in the Life Table Analysis System (LTAS) project used to estimate expected numbers of deaths in our study population. Expected deaths should have been calculated using person-time at risk beginning from the study start date, and instead were calculated using participants' person-time at risk starting from 1 January 1960 or their date of birth, whichever came later. Expected death counts were therefore inflated, resulting in Standardized Mortality Ratios (SMRs) for all-cause and cause specific mortality of the original publication were slightly underestimated due to the inclusion of excess person-time in the LTAS function used to estimate them. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Emergency Responders Epidemiology Firefighters Mental Health Mortality Nervous System Occupational Health Safety September 11 Terrorist Attacks
• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: Mortality; Disaster Epidemiology; World Trade Center; Rescue/Recovery Workers; Occupational Exposure WTC; World Trade Center; Fire Fighters; Rescue Workers; Mortality Rates; Mental Health; Epidemiology; Disaster Recovery; Emergency Medical Services Workers; EMS;
• ISSN:
  1660-4601
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Contract
• 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
• Pages in Document:
  7 pdf pages
• Volume:
  17
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20060820
• Citation:
  Int J Environ Res Public Health 2020 Sep; 17(17):6266
• Contact Point Address:
  Rachel Zeig-Owens, Fire Department of the City of New York, Bureau of Health Services, 9 Metrotech Center, Brooklyn, NY 11201
• Email:
  rachel.zeig-owens@fdny.nyc.gov
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2020
• Performing Organization:
  New York City Fire Department
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20110701
• Source Full Name:
  International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
• End Date:
  20170331
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:ab090e5629bbeace7d777a121e698d7bb0b0068d3dc223b55770211ba4c029f20895334d08021f00336de01e96835e900fbfecf167ccda024cc1490214792ba6
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/231591/cdc_231591_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 287.80 KB ]