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(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Responders to the 2001 World Trade Center (WTC) terrorist attacks who were exposed to caustic dust and toxic pollutants following the 9/11 disaster now suffer from asthma at a rate more than twice that of the general population.
As many as 8 percent of the workers and volunteers who engaged in rescue and recovery, essential service restoration and cleanup efforts in the wake of 9/11 reported experiencing post-9/11 asthma attacks, compared with 4 percent of the general population. The lifetime prevalence of asthma in WTC responders was marked by a dramatic increase from 3 percent pre-9/11 to 16 percent in each of the years between 2005 and 2007.
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"Although previous WTC studies have shown significant respiratory problems, this is the first study to directly quantify the magnitude of asthma among WTC responders compared with the general US population," Hyun Kim, Sc.D., Instructor of Preventive Medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York and lead author of the analysis, was quoted as saying. "Six years out from 9/11, the World Trade Center Program was still observing responders affected by asthma episodes and attacks at more than double the percentage of people not exposed to World Trade Center dust."
In the general population, the prevalence of asthma episodes in the previous 12 months remained relatively constant at slightly less than 4 percent in the period from 2000 to 2007. Among WTC responders, however, while fewer than 1 percent recalled asthma attacks during the year 2000, that percentage increased to 8 percent and remained constant through the period from 2005 to 2007. WTC responders were 2.3 times more likely than the general population to report asthma attacks during the previous 12 months. Additionally, the increase in lifetime prevalence of asthma among responders grew from a reported 3 percent for pre-9/11 diagnoses to 13 percent in 2002. The lifetime prevalence of asthma subsequently rose through the years to plateau at 16 percent from 2005 through 2007.
"It is important to note that this report focused on findings from baseline or initial visit examinations," Philip J. Landrigan, M.D., M.Sc., Ethel H. Wise Professor and Chair of MSSM's Department of Preventive Medicine and principal investigator of the WTC Program Data and Coordination Center, was quoted as saying. "Where the data shows an increasing percentage of responders reporting asthmatic episodes, rising to double that seen in the general population, it is clearly vital that we continue to track responders' health and look further into the medical outcomes of this population."
SOURCE: Presented at the annual scientific assembly of the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP), November 3, 2009
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