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9/11 Terrorist Attack Left Rescue Workers with Chronic Health Problems

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The largest health study ever conducted of rescue and recovery workers who were at ground zero following the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center shows that the effects on the workers’ health are widespread, persistent and, in many cases, chronic and unlikely to improve.
Study Finds Serious Health Problems Among 9/11 Rescue Workers
According to the study, released in September 2006 by doctors at Mount Sinai Medical Center and published in Environmental Health Perspectives, the journal of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, 70 percent of the 9,500 workers tested at Mount Sinai between 2002 and 2004 said they had respiratory problems that either began or grew significantly worse during or after the time they spent working at ground zero. The study did not address cases of cancer reported by rescue and recovery workers since 9/11.

“There should no longer be any doubt about the health effects of the World Trade Center disaster,” said Dr. Robin Herbert, co-director of Mount Sinai’s World Trade Center Worker and Volunteer Medical Screening Program, in a New York Times article. “Our patients are sick, and they will need ongoing care for the rest of their lives.”
Highlights of the study include:
  • Among the responders who had no symptoms before 9/11, 61 percent developed respiratory symptoms while working at the World Trade Center site.
  • One-third of the ground zero workers in the new study showed diminished lung capacity. Among nonsmokers, 28 percent had some breathing impairment, more than double the rate for nonsmokers in the general population.
    • Many respiratory ailments such as sinusitis, asthma and related gastrointestinal problems persisted or grew worse in the years since 9/11.
  • Most of the rescue workers in the study who said they experienced respiratory problems while working at ground zero were still having those problems up to two and a half years later, an indication that the illnesses are becoming chronic.
  • Severe respiratory conditions including pneumonia were significantly more common in the six months after 9/11 than in six months prior
Rescue and recover workers examined in the past year were found to have a number of different ailments caused by their work at the World Trade Center site, including:
  • Upper respiratory illnesses (84 percent), such as sinusitis, laryngitis, and vocal cord dysfunction
  • Lower respiratory disorders (47 percent) such as asthma and a condition known as World Trade Center cough
  • Psychological disorders (37 percent) such as post-traumatic stress disorder and chronic depression, and
  • Musculoskeletal problems (31 percent) often from injuries that occurred while working on “the pile” at ground zero.
  • Workers that arrived at ground zero during the first hours and days after the twin towers collapsed were found to have the worst medical problems.
Symptoms Widespread Among Previously Healthy Workers
According to doctors at Mount Sinai Medical Center, the high rate of respiratory illnesses and pulmonary function abnormalities among ground zero workers in the study as long as two-and-a-half years after the attack on the World Trade Center are particularly troubling because those involved in rescue and recover work after the disaster tended to be vigorous, healthy people such as firefighters, police officers, and workers from the building and utility trades. “An estimated 40,000 rescue and recovery workers were exposed to caustic dust and airborne toxic pollutants following 9/11,” said Philip J. Landrigan, MD, chair of the Department of Community and Preventive Medicine at Mount Sinai. “We are continuing our monitoring and treatment program with support from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).”