9/11 Asthma Makes International News

[TonyGosling]

9/11 cloud sufferers develop asthma
(UKPA) – 1 hour ago
Thousands of people exposed to choking dust after the destruction of the World Trade Centre twin towers in New York have developed asthma, a study has shown.
They included rescue and recovery workers, neighbouring office staff and passers-by.
A follow-up study of more than 46,000 people caught up in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, found one in 10 had been diagnosed with asthma five or six years after the disaster. None of these 4,600 individuals had a previous history of the disease.
There was a strong association between exposure to the choking dust cloud generated by the collapse of the towers and asthma, the study found.
In total, 39% of all those who developed asthma had been intensely exposed to the dust.
The most affected group was 21,600 rescue and recovery workers and volunteers, 12.2% of whom became asthmatic.
More than 8% of the next worst affected group - September 11 passers-by - suffered the disease.
The study's authors, led by Dr Robert Brackbill, from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, wrote in the Journal of the American Medical Association (Jama): "These analyses confirm that intense dust cloud exposure was associated with new asthma diagnoses for each eligibility group, including the 1,913 passers-by who only had exposure to the area air and dust on September 11."
Among rescue and recovery workers, asthma risk was highest for those attending the scene of the attacks on September 11. Risk diminished for individuals who started work at later dates.
Asthma risk was also associated with damage to homes and offices. People who did not evacuate affected buildings had higher rates of asthma than those who did.
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