Editor's Letter

One of the hot topics to be discussed at next month’s Safety Congress and Expo to be held by the National Safety Council is “Hazard Communication: Emergency and Disaster Preparedness.” Five years after 9/11, there’s still a lot to be learned on the subject. Start with: Safety directors, facility managers and government officials need to be responsible for managing a crisis caused by natural and manmade disasters, and they need to know what actions to take.

We’ll be at the Congress & Expo in San Diego and hope to see you there, but if you can’t make it, you might find helpful two feature articles that can help officials meet their responsibilities. Check out “Multi-Hazard Design: Providing Security for Building Occupants and Assets” on page 33, and “Successful Disaster Recovery” on page 37.

Disaster recovery plans are more likely to succeed if a pre-disaster program of physical security is in place prior to the advent of hurricanes, earthquakes, accidental and intentional explosions and other potentially life and business threatening events, says Marty Watts, CEO of V-Kool Inc., a window film manufacturer, who authored “Successful Disaster Recovery.”

I know I don’t need to remind you of the devastation of 9/11, and I’m not going to point fingers, but five years on, the need to be better prepared and vigilant is as great as ever. Does it make you feel better to hear the president say that we’re “safer, but not yet safe,” or that the devastation continues.

Though it’s not really surprising, it’s very distressing to find that nearly seven out of every 10 World Trade Center responders suffered lung problems during or after their work at ground zero, and high rates of lung “abnormalities” continue to be seen, according to a study was released by Mount Sinai Medical Center just days before the fifth anniversary of the destruction of the 110-story towers.

The study focused mostly on the so-called “World Trade Center cough,” a phenomenon
that was little understood immediately after the attacks, but has become the chief concern of health experts and advocates in the years since.

In lung function tests, responders had abnormalities at a rate double that expected in the general population; these abnormalities persisted for months and in some cases years after the exposure, the study found. Other findings highlighted by the study include:

— Among responders who had no health symptoms before the attacks, 61 percent
developed lung symptoms while working on the toxic pile.
— One-third of those tested had abnormal lung function tests.

The findings are based on medical exams conducted between July 2002 and April 2004 on 9,500 ground zero workers, including construction workers, law enforcers, firefighters, transit workers, volunteers and others.

The data shows the illnesses tended to be worse among those who arrived first at the site, and the report comes as public concern over the fate of ground zero workers has risen. While questions have arisen about whether safety regulations were met during the clean up – I know I saw a lot of people without respiratory protection — a class action lawsuit has been brought against the city and its contractors by 8,000 workers and civilians blaming Sept. 11 for sinusitis, cancers and other ailments they developed after the attacks.

The city-run World Trade Center Health Registry is tracking the long-term effects on 71,000 people, including those who lived or worked in lower Manhattan at the time of the attacks and the months of cleanup.

“I can understand the frustration and the anger, and most importantly, the concern about their future,” said Dr. John Howard, head of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health who was appointed by the Bush administration to coordinate the various ground zero health programs, “I can’t blame them for thinking, ‘Where were you when we needed you?’”

Hopefully, there won’t be a next time, but if there is, let’s make sure we’re there for those who will need us.

Thanks and good luck.