Font Size Reduce Text Size Enlarge Text Size     Print Print     Download Reader PDF

This is an archive page. The links are no longer being updated.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, Aug. 5, 2002
Contact: CDC/NIOSH Press Office
(202) 401-3749

HHS AWARDS $11.4 MILLION CONTRACT TO ASSESS HEALTH STATUS
OF WORKERS, VOLUNTEERS AT WORLD TRADE CENTER DISASTER SITE


HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson today announced an $11.4 million contract with the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine to determine whether rescue and recovery workers and volunteers who worked at the World Trade Center disaster site are experiencing related illnesses or injuries.

The contract will fund free standardized clinical examinations to workers and volunteers involved in Ground Zero rescue and cleanup efforts. Under the contract, New York's Mt. Sinai School of Medicine and a consortium of occupational health clinics in New York, New Jersey and other locations will provide the examinations to eligible workers and volunteers. "The workers and volunteers at the World Trade Center site set a standard for courage and dedication that will never be forgotten," Secretary Thompson said. "We want to make sure that their heroic service does not have long-term health consequences, and these screening examinations will be essential to that effort."

The goal of the project is to have a system in place that will help employers and public health professionals identify symptoms, injuries or conditions that may indicate long-term illness as a result of their work at the World Trade Center, so that interventions can be pursued. The contract will also pay for Mt. Sinai to compile a database of the findings, allowing researchers to assess potential occupational illness and injury patterns among the workers, and provide data for future studies where health changes over time can be identified and addressed.

The examinations will focus on identifying health problems most likely to occur as a result of work at or near the World Trade Center site. These include potential respiratory effects, musculoskeletal disorders, chronic effects from injuries at the site and mental health conditions.

The contract will be administered by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), the part of HHS' Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that conducts research and makes recommendations for preventing job-related injuries and illnesses. NIOSH scientists were on-site during the early stages of the World Trade Center rescue and recovery operations to provide technical assistance to state and local health authorities addressing the health and safety of workers, volunteers, and managers, as part of the HHS' rapid response to public health concerns arising from the collapse of the World Trade Center towers.

"Mt. Sinai is one of the pre-eminent occupational health institutions in the world," said NIOSH Director John Howard,
M.D., M.P.H., J.D., LL.M., "We are pleased to enlist its technical expertise for a project that will serve the country well for decades to come."

"These men and women demonstrated true heroism in their efforts to help this city at its darkest hour," said Dr. Kenneth Berns, CEO and President of the Mt. Sinai Medical Center at the opening event today. "It is our duty to do everything we can to ensure they do not suffer lasting health effects as a result of their selfless acts. We at Mount Sinai are grateful to President Bush, Secretary Thompson and Congress whose efforts have made this possible."

It is estimated that the program will provide screenings to at least 8,500 workers and volunteers who toiled at the World Trade Center site. Workers will receive a report from the results, and general, de-identified information about the screenings will be shared with industry, labor, and government to help identify potential trends in health effects.

Mt. Sinai's Irving J. Selikoff Center for Occupational and Environmental Medicine will be the center leading the examinations. The other participating occupational health clinical centers are the Bellevue/New York University Occupational and Environmental Medicine Clinic; the State University of New York's Stony Brook/Long Island Occupational and Environmental Health Center; the Center for the Biology of Natural Systems at Queens College in New York; and the Clinical Center of the Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in Piscataway, N.J. The referrals for participants that are outside the New York metropolitan area, will be coordinated with the Association of Occupational and Environmental Clinics.

For information on the screening program or to sign-up contact Mt. Sinai, 1-888-702-0630.

###


Note: All HHS press releases, fact sheets and other press materials are available at www.hhs.gov/news.