Characteristics of a residential and working community with diverse exposure to World Trade Center dust, gas, and fumes.
OBJECTIVE
To describe physical symptoms in those local residents, local workers, and cleanup workers who were enrolled in a treatment program and had reported symptoms and exposure to the dust, gas, and fumes released with the destruction of the World Trade Center (WTC) on September 11, 2001.


METHODS
Symptomatic individuals underwent standardized evaluation and subsequent treatment.


RESULTS
One thousand eight hundred ninety-eight individuals participated in the WTC Environmental Health Center between September 2005 and May 2008. Upper and lower respiratory symptoms that began after September 11, 2001 and persisted at the time of examination were common in each exposure population. Many (31%) had spirometry measurements below the lower limit of normal.


CONCLUSIONS
Residents and local workers as well as those with work-associated exposure to WTC dust have new and persistent respiratory symptoms with lung function abnormalities 5 or more years after the WTC destruction.
Department of Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY 10011, USA. joan.reibman@nyumc.org
Joan
J
Reibman
Mengling
M
Liu
Qinyi
Q
Cheng
Sybille
S
Liautaud
Linda
L
Rogers
Stephanie
S
Lau
Kenneth I
KI
Berger
Roberta M
RM
Goldring
Michael
M
Marmor
Maria Elena
ME
Fernandez-Beros
Emily S
ES
Tonorezos
Caralee E
CE
Caplan-Shaw
Jaime
J
Gonzalez
Joshua
J
Filner
Dawn
D
Walter
Kymara
K
Kyng
William N
WN
Rom
D000328:Adult; D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000009:adverse effects*; D000397:Air Pollution / Q000009:adverse effects*; D004391:Dust; D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000009:adverse effects*; D005260:Female; D005740:Gases / Q000009:adverse effects; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009519:New York City / Q000453:epidemiology; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology*; D012120:Respiration Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology*; D012129:Respiratory Function Tests; D047851:September 11 Terrorist Attacks; D013147:Spirometry; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
D000393:Air Pollutants; D004391:Dust; D005740:Gases