Engineering & Mathematics Notebook

Monday, 12 September 2011

Remembering 9/11 – from the Health Standpoint

Yesterday – September 11, 2011, the 10th anniversary of 9/11 – was a sobering event for many.  It becomes even more sobering to realize the toll – both physical and psychological – that the events of a decade ago had on the survivors.

One way to evaluate the damage is to view a website from the National Library of Medicine (NLM) and the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’ Disaster Information Management Research Center (DIMRC) titled  The Health Effects from the Collapse of the World Trade Center. This website features comprehensive data on many health-related aspects of the event, including studies from multiple government agencies, environmental data, follow-up studies (including updates on the rescue dogs), and bibliographies.   The site also provides quick links to relevant materials in NLM databases such as PubMed, TOXLINE, and the NLM Catalog.

Another informative, health-focused, government site comes from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC): The World Trade Center Health Program.  This site provides resources for responders and survivors of the  events as well as an index of scientific articles which can be filtered by types of effects, groups of survivors, and other parameters.

Together, these two websites provide a comprehensive starting point  for gathering information on the public health impact of the collapse of the twin towers.

Posted in Public Health Engineering