Environmental Health Effects of WTC

University Research

The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), through the National Institutes of Health (NIH), set aside supplemental funding to assist scientists and educators with community outreach and education, exposure assessment research, epidemiological studies, and worker training activities. All of these programs aim to increase awareness of the potential environmental health effects resulting from the WTC tragedy.





The Caspary Research Institute of The Animal Medical Center

Assessment of Injuries and Illness in Search and Rescue Dogs Associated with World Trace Center Relief Efforts
This study is evaluating acute and chronic injuries in NYPD dogs that worked at Ground Zero and in New York City during relief efforts associated with the September 11th terrorist attacks. Compiled data will be submitted to a peer reviewed scientific journal for publication.
(Principal Investigator: Philip R. Fox)

Community outreach and education program(COEP)
• A needs assessment of environmental health capacity is being conducted through individual interviews with local and state public health workers;
• Case Studies of the Public Health Response to WTC will expand upon the above needs assessment project to produce a training tool for public health preparedness forums;
• Two community forums for "NJ to NYC" Commuters were conducted: 10/8/02 (Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, New Jersey) and 12/10/02 (Jersey City Museum in Jersey City, New Jersey). The forums targeted residents of New Jersey who commute to NYC for work and/or tourism, focusing on WTC environmental health research and related commuter concerns. Panel sessions with scientists concluded each forum
• A new case study is being developed for students based on the WTC dust and "cough." The new hands-on activities will be used in conjunction with the EOHSI/UMDNJ-SPH ToxRAP™ curriculum for middle school students.
• This website will be regularly updated with new information and research on the environmental health effects of the World Trade Center collapse.
(Principal Investigator: Audrey R. Gotsch and Laura Hemminger)

Microenvironmental Modeling in a GIS/RDBS Framework
The WTC fires burned for about three months. Scientists are conducting a study focusing on residents and commuters associated with this area to determine their patterns of exposure over a period of time.
(Principal Investigator: Panos Georgopoulos, in collaboration with the US Environmental Protection Agency)

Analysis of indoor settled dust/smoke samples
(Principal Investigator: Paul J. Lioy)
The dust and smoke plume emitted by the collapse of the WTC contained a complex mixture of many irritating agents and other pollutants. Scientists are examining and comparing indoor samples gathered from one school and several apartments in one building immediately downwind of the plume to outdoor samples to determine if the potential health concerns were similar or greater for indoor and outdoor locations.
Link to WTC presentation

Psychological Symptoms and Asthma in the NYC General Population Following World Trade Center Disaster: Examination of Relationship to Smoke Plume Exposure
Investigators will incorporate the information from the plume study (Microenvironmental Modeling in a GIS/RDBS Framework) with a New York Academy of Medicine survey to compare psychological distress and symptoms of those individuals directly exposed to the plume of WTC air contaminants with those not in the plume.
(Principal Investigators: Howard M. Kipen, Daniel Wartenberg, Panos Georgopoulos and Robert Lambauch, Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute; Sandro Galea, Mailman School of Public Health of Columbia University)

Symptoms, Psychology, Respiratory Disease, and Disability in NYC Firefighters Following the World Trade Center Disaster
This study will add detailed medical and psychological data to the information from the self-reported questionnaires in the study above, with the goal of building a comprehensive model of health outcomes in firefighters in the New York City Fire Department. This model will help researchers examine the relationships between Ground Zero exposure, health, and disability.
(Investigators: Howard M. Kipen and William Hallman, Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute; David Prezant, Fire Department of New York)

Regional reproductive outcomes after 9/11
This study focuses on the effects of stress on New Jersey and New York residents in relation to pregnancies and births. Scientists are comparing birth certificates from the three years prior to 9/11 to the births after 9/11, focusing on such areas as babies' gender, birth weight and abnormalities. Investigators will also look at the plume emitted from the WTC site for agents that may cause birth defects.
(Principal Investigator: George H. Lambert, in collaboration with the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services and the New York Department of Health)

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health : NIEHS Center in Urban Environmental Health
Evaluation of Health Effects of Clean Up Workers at the World Trade Center Disaster Site: Exposure and Health Assessment
Principal Investigator: John D. Groopman

The WTC Clean Up and Recovery Worker Health Assessment
Personal exposure to and area sampling for airborne contaminants was conducted at the disaster site during October 2001 and April 2002. Contaminants measured included asbestos, particulate matter, and volatile organic compounds. Personal exposure was assessed for a group of truck drivers involved in the clean up operation. Area monitoring was conducted at 5 locations directly at Ground Zero.

A registry of truck drivers, heavy equipment operators, and laborers who worked at Ground Zero is being created. A questionnaire has been developed that will assess respiratory health, mental health, and quality of life. The questionnaire was sent to all workers identified by their unions as having been involved in the clean up operation at some point between September 2001 and June 2002. A comparison group of "non-exposed" truck drivers, heavy equipment operators, and laborers identified by their union were asked to fill out a questionnaire. The version of the questionnaire for the "non-exposed" workers did not contain exposure questions but is otherwise identical to the questionnaire that will be given to the workers who were at Ground Zero.

The responses to this questionnaire will establish a baseline of health for each worker as well as provide a better understanding of the prevalence rates of health symptoms that resulted from the clean-up of the disaster. Workers will indicate on their questionnaires whether they would be willing to be contacted in the future so additional studies can track health issues in this population.
(Principal Investigator: Alison Geyh)

Community Outreach
Open meetings will be held at local union halls to discuss summary results from the questionnaires related to air quality and the health assessment of truck drivers, heavy equipment operators, and laborers. These meetings will also provide a forum for workers to ask about any particular health or exposure related concerns that may have as a result of their work at Ground Zero.

All workers who receive a questionnaire from Johns Hopkins will also be provided with brochures describing health care facilities that have agreed to be Johns Hopkins' referral services. Workers can call these facilities and make appointments if they are having any physical or mental health concerns. Included in the questionnaire packet is a toll free number that workers can use to contact Johns Hopkins with any questions regarding the Johns Hopkins' program.
(Investigators: Alison Geyh and Alan Langlieb)

Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
World Trade Center Studies at the Center for Environmental Health in Northern Manhattan
Principal Investigator: Regina M. Santella

WTCECD (World Trade Center Environmental Contaminant Database)
A relational database, located at http://wtc.hs.columbia.edu/wtc/ has been created with data from governmental agencies. This collection of pre and post 9/11 ambient air quality data has been available in a web-based interface since June 2003.
(Investigator: Steven Chillrud and Damon Chaky, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University; Elsie Chettiar and Diane Levy, Mailman School of Public Health of Columbia University; Alison Geyh, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health)

COEP Activities
The Community Outreach and Education Program (COEP) is working on the development of curriculum tools for high school and college teachers that would allow utilization of the database.
(Principal Investigator: Peggy Shepard)

Analysis of AVIRIS Hyperspectral Imagery of the WTC Collapse Plume and Quantitative Assessment of WTC Plume Emissions from Digital Imagery
This project was originally a collaboration with Mt. Sinai, and now continues with support through the WTC Supplement to Columbia’s NIEHS Center. Using NASA's Airborne

Sediment Based Work
In the aftermath of 9/11, the Exposure Assessment Core began an extensive collaboration with Dr. Alison Geyh of the Hopkins NIEHS Center on their study of teamsters transporting debris. This involved support in the field as well as analyses of a limited number of air and dust samples for a suite of 28 elements and metals. A central theme to our WTC exposure work is to help put exposures into perspective by putting contaminant compositions and levels into context, including from a historical perspective.

Recent work by some of our Center members generated a wide array of air pollutant data (outdoors, indoors, and personal) for NYC that can provide estimates for background levels of volatile organic compounds, aldehydes and particle-associated elements that could be measured in NYC prior to September 11, 2001. Very little to no data prior to September 11 exists for certain WTC related contaminants. Consequently, as another method to place WTC related contaminant levels into perspective, we collected sediment cores that would chronicle atmospheric deposits of WTC contaminants into NY Harbor, central Brooklyn (Prospect Park Lake) and mid-Manhattan (Central Park Lake). We will compare these to current and historical fluxes based on measurements in the dated sediment cores that were not related to the WTC disaster. Analytical results are being integrated into the WTCECD.
(Investigator: Steven Chillrud, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University)

WTC Pregnancy Study
This study has enrolled a cohort of pregnant women who were exposed to airborne pollutants as a result of being in the vicinity of the World Trade Center on 9/11. The study, headed by Dr. Frederica Perera, DrPh, and directed by Sally Ann Lederman, PhD, will assess the effects of these toxins on the women's health and that of their babies. Four downtown Manhattan hospitals are participating. Samples of umbilical cord blood and the mothers blood and urine will be analyzed for traces of substances such as pcbs, dioxins, furans, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, lead, cadmium, and mercury, all of which are believed to have been in the air or dust following the collapse of the buildings and the resulting fires. Additional funding has been awarded to follow the babies to age two to determine the effects of these exposures on the growth and development of young children. A similar group of women who do not work or live in the area will serve as controls.
(Investigators: Frederica Perera and Sally Ann Lederman)

WTC-ITEA database
The major goal of this work is to create a relational database containing pre and post 9/11 ambient air quality data generated from governmental agencies and allow access to the data via an easy to use web-based interface.
(Principal Investigator: Steven Chillrud, located at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University)

Public dissemination of database: COEP
(Principal Investigator: Peggy Shepard)

Mount Sinai School of Medicine
The Mount Sinai Superfund Basic Research Program World Trade Center Supplement
Principal Investigator: Philip J. Landrigan

Clinical & Epidemiological Studies of Ironworkers
Two hundred ironworkers, who worked at the clean-up effort at Ground Zero during the first several days after 9/11, are being monitored for persistent upper and lower airway dysfunction and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. This population is being compared with ironworkers who never volunteered or worked at the site. This comparison will be examined for associations between environmental exposures at Ground Zero and detected clinical abnormalities.
(Investigators: Stephen Levin, Gwen Skloot, Alvin Teirstein) The Effects of the World Trade Center Disaster on Pregnant Women and Their Infants
Two hundred pregnant women who lived or worked near the World Trade Center are the subjects of this study. Pregnancy outcomes were studied including gestational age, birth weight, height, head circumference and fetal length. Perinatal morbidity and mortality and developmental assessments were also analyzed.
(Investigator: Gertrud Berkowitz)Outreach to Children and Families
The Mount Sinai Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit (PEHSU) is compiling an evidence-based evaluation of environmental testing results from World Trade Center related exposures. Sources of exposure data include government agencies such as the EPA, OSHA and independent evaluations conducted by the New York City Board of Education. The PEHSU organized this data into short, easily understood, lay level fact sheets that cover the major exposures from the WTC attacks and potential health effects specifically in children. The information is organized by pollutant. Fact sheets completed and in the process of review include Lead, Asbestos, Volatile Organic Compounds, Particulate Matter, PCBs and Dioxins. Fact sheets will also be posted on the Mount Sinai PEHSU website.
(Investigators: Philip Landrigan, Joel Forman, Jacqueline Moline, Bambi Fisher, Maida Galvez, Nathan Graber, Leonardo Trasande)New York University School of Medicine

Outreach to children and families
The Mount Sinai Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit (PEHSU) is in the process of compiling an evidence-based evaluation of environmental testing results from World Trade Center related exposures. Sources of exposure data include government agencies such as the EPA, OSHA and independent evaluations conducted by the New York City Board of Education. The PEHSU has organized this data into short, easily understood, lay level fact sheets that cover the major exposures from the WTC attacks and potential health effects specifically in children. The information is organized by pollutant. Fact sheets completed and in the process of review include Lead, Asbestos, Volatile Organic Compounds, Particulate Matter, PCBs and Dioxins. Fact sheets will also be posted on the Mount Sinai PEHSU website.
(Principal Investigator: Joel Forman)

Clinical & epidemiological studies of ironworkers
(Principal Investigator: Stephen Levin)

Epidemiologic study of pregnant women & children
Two hundred pregnant women who lived or worked near the World Trade Center are the subjects of this study. Pregnancy outcomes will be studied including gestational age, birth weight, height, head circumference and fetal length. Perinatal morbidity and mortality and developmental assessments will also be analyzed.
(Principal Investigator: Gertrud Berkowitz)

New York University School of Medicine
Environmental Health Issues Related to WTC Disaster
Environmental Health Issues Related to WTC Disaster
Principal Investigator: Lung Chi Chen

NYC Firefighters Study
Some of the symptoms of the “World Trade Center Cough” are bronchial wall thickening and lung parenchyma, with severity related to the intensity of Ground Zero exposure. Heart and lung function continue to be studied in 300 firefighters from the FDNY to determine the effects of exposure at Ground Zero.
(Investigator: William Rom)

WTC Resident Respiratory Health Study
The medical director of the Bellevue Hospital Primary Care Asthma Clinic studied health effects of potential World Trade Center dust exposure in residents of the surrounding community. Funded by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), this study was designed to ascertain whether respiratory symptoms significantly increased among area residents after the World Trade Center collapse. Community residents, advocacy groups, local community boards, local tenant organizations, local medical organizations, and clinics participated in designing and implementing this study. Questionnaires were distributed at building complexes to determine the presence of persistent respiratory complaints; and follow-up respiratory studies focused on the characterization of residents with respiratory complaints. Residents near Ground Zero with new onset of asthma-like symptoms were examined and pulmonary function was tested. Questionnaires were distributed to affected residents. Preliminary results suggest increased respiratory symptoms in a previously health population living within one mile of the World Trade Center. These new-onset symptoms persisted for approximately one year in some residents.
(Investigator: Joan Reibman, in collaboration with New York State Department of Health)

Exposure Assessment
This project examines the impact of the WTC plume on the health of Brooklyn residents. Emergency room hospital admissions for residents aged 65 and older are being examined for association with the WTC plume; plume exposure will be estimated at zip code levels. Brooklyn is of special interest because contains densely populated residential areas and the initial plume impacts appeared to be especially high. Brooklyn’s elderly population (age 65 and older) was chosen for this study because past studies have shown associations between ambient particulate matter and cardiovascular/respiratory admissions in this age category; a large fraction of this age category is retired and less mobile than the general population, making exposure misclassification less likely; and unlike children and younger adults, this age category is not subject to the surge in respiratory admissions that occurs every year from mid-September to early October. The final stage of this project will be a comparison of the observed and expected excess hospital admissions for 9/11/01 and the following 4 weeks.
(Investigators: Kaz Ito and Morton Lippman, New York University School of Medicine; Panos Georgopoulos, Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute)

Characterization of WTC Settled Dusts
Researchers have completed size separation and toxicity testing of both indoor and outdoor settled dusts from the WTC collapse and continue to analyze dust samples. Preliminary results indicate that the main components of these dusts were consistent with building materials. The alkaline nature and relatively large dust particle size may have been a contributing cause for the upper airway irritation and “WTC Cough” seen in workers and residents exposed to high dust concentrations.
(Investigators: George Thurston, Polina Maciejczyk, Kaz Ito, Beverly Cohen and Lung Chi Chen)

Number, Concentration and Composition of Fine and Ultrafine Airborne Particles
An air-sampling site was set up at the New York University Downtown Hospital, about 4 blocks north east of the WTC site, from 9/20/01 to 12/27/01. Measurements were repeated one year later, from 9/25/02 to 10/24/02, using the same instruments. This study will compare NYU’s data (pre-9/11, 2001, and 2002) to Hunter College data collected at the same timse.
(Investigators: Beverly Cohen and Maire Heikkinen)

Toxicity assessment
The overall objective of this task is to determine the potential acute and longer-term respiratory and systemic toxicity of selected WTC dust fractions in young and old rats following pulmonary administration of a high dose of WTC dust, with or without a subsequent respiratory tract infection.
(Investigators: Lung Chi Cheng, New York University School of Medicine; Alison Elder, Jacob Finkelstein and Günter Oberdörster, University of Rochester Environmental Health Sciences Center)

Database Management Program
A database for all samples collected by NYUSOM (both before and after 9/11) has been built, updated and completed. Constructed in the WTCECD format, final results have been submitted to the WTCECD.
(Investigators: Lung Chi Chen, Judy Xiong)


Outreach Activities
NYU's outreach efforts continue to provide expert advice and scientific research results to the community and to policy makers via media interactions, community forums, and a newsletter.
• NYU researchers made themselves available to the press in all formats, including multiple print interviews. The overarching goal of these media interactions was to convey information that would address public concerns.
• NYU community forums, held in October of 2001, 2002 and 2003, had prominent NIEHS funded researchers as expert panelists. The forums served as a venue to address community concerns, and to inform the public about potential environmental risks, results already obtained, studies in progress, and future plans outlined for WTC research.
• The comprehensive World Trade Center Research newsletter, a collaborative effort with the University of Rochester Environmental Health Sciences Center, was released in September of 2002 and 2003. The newsletter summarized current ongoing NIEHS Center investigations, in addition to providing some practical tips for addressing WTC pollution in residences. The newsletter is available online at http://niem.med.nyu.edu/ and has been widely distributed in lower Manhattan and at WTC meetings.
(Investigators: George Thurston, Lisa Schuetz, Lung Chi Chen)

University of North Carolina
UNC Center for Environmental Health and Susceptibility & UNC Superfund Basic Research Program
Assessment of Community Exposures Following the WTC Disaster
(Principal Investigator: Steven M. Rappaport)

Community exposures following the WTC disaster
Analysis of air filters for personal monitoring devices.
(Investigator: Steven M. Rappaport)

Spatiotemporal mapping
Geographical Information Systems (GIS)-based mapping of Ground Zero and the surrounding areas.
(Investigator: George Christakos)


University of Pennsylvania
Caring for the WTC and Pentagon Rescuers Post 9/11
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have begun a three-year study of the search-and-rescue mission's effects on more than 200 rescue dogs and their handlers. Comprised of veterinary researchers and psychologists, the team will focus on the physical and psychological toll, possibly sounding an early alert on ailments to watch for among those who have toiled to clear the wreckage. The study also includes researchers at Michigan State University and the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. (Investigators: Cindy Otto, University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine; Melissa Hunt, University of Pennsylvania School of Arts and Sciences)

Michigan State University
Assessing Exposure in Search and Rescue Dogs from the World Trade Center and Pentagon Sites
Researchers at Michigan State University (MSU) and the University of Pennsylvania have been involved in a collaborative study of search and rescue dogs deployed at the World Trade Center and Pentagon disaster sites. Researchers from the Diagnostic Center for Population and Animal Health at MSU are studying samples from approximately 200 dogs for PCBs and other organic toxins, such as mercury and lead. Dogs that have died since working at the disaster sites are examined by veterinary pathologists to determine cause of death, cancer incidence and any evidence of toxic damage to their organs. After three years, the information gathered from the specimens at both universities will be compiled into a database. If a positive correlation between toxicants exposure and deaths is found, then researchers will consider ways to protect dogs in order to reduce exposure.
(Investigators: Scott Fitzgerald and Wilson Rumbeiha) The University of Rochester

The University of Rochester (collaborating with New York University)

Community Outreach
The Community Outreach and Education Program (COEP) at the University of Rochester Environmental Health Sciences Center, in collaboration with the COEP at New York University (NYU), published newsletters on the anniversaries of the 9/11 tragedy in 2002 and 2003. 10,000 newsletters were distributed -mostly in Lower Manhattan- and both newsletters highlight NIEHS-funded research projects.
(Investigator: Dina G. Markowitz)

Toxicity Assessment of Ultra-fine WTC Dust
Scientists at the University of Rochester's Environmental Health Sciences Center are analyzing World Trade Center dust samples, collected by NYU scientists, to determine the health effects of these particles on lung cells. Preliminary results of these studies show that dust particles do not have adverse effects on the lung cells, and follow-up studies will look at any long-term effects on cells.
(Investigators: Jacob N. Finkelstein; Gunter Oberdoster and Alison Elder)

This website is made possible through the National Environmental Health Sciences Institute (NIEHS), Grant No. ES05022-15S1. It is administered by the Community Outreach and Education Program (COEP), an outreach component of the NIEHS Center of Excellence housed at the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute (EOHSI), in Piscataway, New Jersey, and the UMDNJ-School of Public Health.

Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute, 170 Frelinghuysen Road, Piscataway, NJ 08854 Phone: 732-445-0200 For additional information contact webmaster@eohsi.rutgers.edu