Lung Function of 9/11 Rescuers decreased, Study Finds

Clouds of thick dust and smoke permeated the air around the area where the World Trade Centers used to be on the day of September 11, 2001. Workers on the scene had to breathe in the dust and smoke while working in the rubble and trying to find survivors of the attack. A new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine has found that the workers present at the scene suffered from abnormal lung function 9 years later.

The study followed 13,000 emergency rescue personnel, police and firefighters who responded to the scene. Each participant in the study had undergone lung function tests prior to the 9/11 attack. Each participant in the study suffered from abnormal lung function as a result from being present at ground zero.

Doctor Prezant, one of the people who conducted the study, found that first responders suffered from a 10% drop in lung function in the first year after the attack. The lungs did not recover and lung function drops at a slower pace after the first year. Prezant emphasized the need for continuing treatment and lung monitoring. The study’s sample include 91% of the roughly fourteen thousand EMS personnel who ended up sorting through the rubble.