9/11 survivors troubled by asthma, PTSD

9/11 survivors troubled by asthma, PTSD
Story Highlights
Working group looked at more than 100 studies done since 2001

Survivors reported higher levels of PTSD and respiratory problems such as asthma

More federal funds needed for medical services for at-risk groups, panel says

By Andrea Kane
CNN

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- On September 11, 2001, Kathryn Freed watched from two blocks away as a plane hit the World Trade Center's north tower.

"Honestly, it was so surreal," Freed said. "We heard the plane coming -- it was very low and very loud -- and we watched it go right over our heads; we just watched it hit dead center the north tower. I stood there and watched the skin of the building come off. It looked like tinsel from a Christmas tree falling down."

A short while later, Freed saw the second plane plow through the south tower in a giant fireball. And as she headed back toward her apartment, four blocks from what was soon to be known as ground zero, the south tower collapsed, sending a plume of debris into the air and straight down her street.

Freed believes that the lingering cloud of dust -- caused by the towers' collapse and the digging out of ground zero -- caused some of her long- and short-term medical problems, such as her "WTC cough" and other respiratory issues.

She's among the many residents of lower Manhattan, emergency responders, recovery workers, commuters and passers-by to have developed serious, sometimes chronic medical problems since the terrorist attack seven years ago.

A commission charged with examining the scope and depth of the attack's health effects reviewed more than 100 scientific articles published since 2001 and found that new asthma levels among residents and rescue workers were two to three times higher than the national estimates.

The report by the World Trade Center Medical Working Group, issued in advance of the September 11 anniversary, also found that two to three years after the attack, symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder remained elevated among rescue and recovery workers and residents of lower Manhattan.

But the most reassuring finding was that in all the studies they looked at, there was consistency.

"The primary finding of the report, as you synthesize the main findings from more than 100 peer review articles on the health ramifications of 9/11, is that the findings are very similar across the studies," Lorna Thorpe said. Thorpe, the deputy commissioner in the Division of Epidemiology at New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, is a member of the Medical Working Group.
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http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/09/11/wtc.health.report/index.html

It would have been a wonderful memorial to take care of all the rescue workers who rushed in to help and came from all other the country, but they didn't. Too many have been dying for the simple fact they acted to help. They lost jobs because they became ill on that day. They lost family members because too many felt it was their duty to go there and help. Police officers, firefighters, construction workers, all rushed in to help and they have been paying the price ever since but no one has paid attention to any of them. Healthcare has been denied and the debt we owed to all of them has yet to be paid. kc