Health Conditions

The World Trade Center (WTC) terrorist attack and its aftermath exposed hundreds of thousands of people to debris, dust, smoke and fumes. Studies conducted after September 11, 2001, among rescue and clean-up workers, office workers, building evacuees, and residents of lower Manhattan have shown increased respiratory and other physical health problems.

For over nearly two decades, we have conducted five major surveys and used the data collected to research the health impact of the disaster on survivors, rescue and recovery workers, and clean-up workers. We have found that the disaster had a profound impact on both the physical and mental health of those impacted, whether they were passersby, or worked, lived, and went to school around the area, or participated in the massive clean-up that followed both on site, and at the landfills in Staten Island.