As the world waits -- and waits -- for the World Trade Center's redevelopment project to rise from the gaping hole along Church Street, downtown residents and recovery workers continue to suffer from the illnesses related to the September 11th attacks. Sinus pressure, coughing, wheezing and difficulty breathing are just a handful of symptoms afflicting thousands of those who lived and worked in lower Manhattan during and immediately after the tragedy -- all are effects of the air's contamination.
Years after the attacks, New Yorkers and out-of-state volunteers continue to emerge saying they suffer from a World Trade Center related illness. Last week, Mayor Michael Bloomberg launched a campaign to seek out such victims -- with advertisements soon to appear on subways and television screens across the city. The mayor and medical experts predicted thousands -- maybe hundreds of thousands -- of untreated responders, volunteers and residents could be eligible for medical care. At least for now.
Though advocates say the city has adequately responded in the last year to the health effects of the World Trade Center attacks, its ability to treat victims is threatened. Calling federal support "inconsistent and episodic," Bloomberg said the city needs to have a stable funding source from Washington if it is to continue providing medical care to 9-11 workers and residents.
As of now, the funding the city receives could be cut off in 2009 -- eight years after the attacks. With little known of the long-term effects of air contamination downtown, a lack of funding, advocates and city officials say, can cripple the city's ability to adequately address the health needs of victims in the future.
The Response and Results A report released last week from the World Trade Center Working Group -- an expert panel appointed by Bloomberg to monitor Sept. 11th health-related studies and issues -- showed studies were consistent in finding the prevalence of elevated rates of asthma and other respiratory diseases among recovery workers and those who lived or worked downtown. It also found the prevalence of mental health issues, such as post traumatic stress disorder.
That report, advocates and community representatives say, further solidifies the city's acceptance of scientific evidence that the attacks on the World Trade Center has led to -- and could still be causing -- serious health issues for residents and recovery workers.
This represents a change from years ago.
"As an employer (the city) didn't provide adequate protection to the thousands of workers around ground zero," said David Newman, the industrial hygienist for the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health, an advocacy group. "However, recent developments are quite welcome. The city has acknowledged that people's health has been impacted across a wide variety of populations."
In the immediate aftermath of the attacks, said advocates, the city mismanaged its own workers in the recovery effort -- who, in an attempt to find human remains, picked through a massive, smoldering pile rife with dangerous materials. Those workers suffer from respiratory illnesses caused by inhaling contaminants that tore through their lungs.
Rates of asthma, for example, are two to three times higher for Lower Manhattan residents and recovery workers. Children caught in the attack's dust cloud were twice as likely to be diagnosed with asthma two to three years after Sept. 11, according to the working group's report.
About 25 percent of firefighters experienced symptoms two to four years after the attacks, according to the report. Before the attacks, 5 percent had respiratory illnesses.
The city has allocated $100 million to health care for those affected by the attacks over five years. Some of that funding will go toward the city's World Trade Center Environmental Health Center at Bellevue Hospital Center, Gouverneur Health Care Services and Elmhurst Hospital Center as well as programs at Mount Sinai and at the Fire Department. At Bellevue alone, said city officials, 2,800 people are being treated. A total of about 10,000 are within the Health and Hospitals Corporation system for World Trade Center treatment.
Full Story: http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/health/20080910/9/2639