NYT Article on WTC Memorial Design Finalists, 2003

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

I PUBLIC LIVtS

A Public Health Warrior, Tracking 9/11 Trends By LYNDA RICHARDSON r • intcrvlews going on.” POLLY THOMAS is lean- <; a Does she worry about her own

-1 ri bl health? She says no, "We would come up out of the subway and have this burning plas­ l^dtld -Trade :totet.;H6alth -kegi^; g tic odor, and you wonder what was tfy. Dr. -Thofes .te:-.-art. MsM.'; ■ '4; this burning plastic odor doing to cbmmlsslonerrtor the Nqw Yhrk ' '■ you,” she says. *T’m not actually City Department of Health add j-A • churning my stomach, but I’ll be Mental Hygiehe. i- quite happy to have the registry and the new registry, on6 of the ’ m j for the Health Department to have biggest public health investigations « the data and to be able to watch the in history, falii under Dr. Thomas’S M health trends.” aegis in the department’s Burcau of .H As she talks about the registry, ^rVelllance. 1 ' ' Dr. Thomas becomes more at ease. ^“To do this is k huge job,” she ■ She makes a point of repeating the WS^ sitting in a small. Cramped . registry’s toll-free number, (8S6) i^fice at 125 Worth Street, her desk NYC-WTCR, and the city’s informa­ Covered with 'tidy stacks of docu­ tion Une, 311. ments. !./ 4. One is keen to know why it took The registry is ..an ambitioiis so long to get the registry going, and i r-* project to tratk dowfi tens of thou­ whether that delay will hurt the tn sands of peoj^e who were exposed M^iPMHSSme Ynrk TlAes endeavor. Dr Thomas seems to an­ to me fire and smoke of Sept. 11, ticipate these questions. “1 think It’s w 2001. Dr. Thortlas says up to 200,000 "ib sort • wi v^statted fine,’; she says Irt an upbeat tone, CQ people could] lenroll. The agency smiling. She says the draft protocol 8 plans a medlbcampalgn with bro- sponse/rom for the registry was actually devel­ oped by December 2001, $20 million 8 New VofkeA We’?e very in federal financing was obtained b; “We havCpretty broad recruit­ by July 2002, and government ap­ ment, but we are intensely focused provals came this last summer. Q dn people with the highest expo-. DR. POLLY THOWAS "We’re concerned about long-term Mrdf; she .says. "Our data will tell a ,.ii, , health effects, and so. It’s certainly £ Clear story of how many people have different tored pediatriG H.I.V. cases and peiHnatai trans-. not too late to look at these.” su types of health issues.” So,fat, she says l2,900 rnissibm df /kd.V. and de people have tilled up, and 6,000. have complete rniasio-mtnute telephone surveySi/ ;/ ■ . The Health Department cat! be tlght-flStM assistant (ktMfHissMr.In 4 spate of Dr. Thomas tracks human health conditions. Mtned ■ But it was her childhood fascination with insects and nature that led her to study biology at Yale, where she attended medical school. The daughter With its information; particularly, if it l^etq^ Z^Atl^hef. a publie health ^aflbr. But Dr. of commercial artists, she was. raised in the coal­ S delldate, premature, it can We &_ ^hfHential, 'delicate, I Thomas, a tall, slender wPmah with an mining region of northeastern Pennsylvania. “I J. V-Z Intense manner, is also somewhat shy and Used to look at bugs In my backyard. There were

1 rdfirirter soeaks proudly mad. But Dr. Thomas speaks reporter mad, oroudlv of fhiS ^ehcy. "There is a lot of earnest ehdeavbr private. She refuses to give her age; dage advice so many different kinds, and they were beautiful.” golhft on here,” she says. It has often been her taken from a grandmother who died at 103. "It’s She trained .as a pediatrician, a decision friendly voice on the other end of the telephone personal,” says Dr. Thomas, the mdther of three Influenced by her yOunger sister, who has Down reporters, explaining the seemingly tn- children, ages 21, io^attd: 115. ^drome. She completed her pediatric residency § inStartihgthereglstry, Dr. Thomas hasbeen at the Universlty of Rochester, and has a part- 8 br. Thomas has tracked human ailments and busy in the last several months with adminlstra- time practice In s Summit, N.J. ,She is married to ----------- ------------ details like r-Dthe developing survey .question- ------- ------- kick Hell, the executive director of the New York diseases, chiefly AIDS, since she arrlved at the tlve department m. 1981. .She wm stationed in W nalre, obtaining approval from the w and fed- chapter of the American institute of,Architects. § • and btaHist&fit^ ta^ to get i- the message out to the public. ter 29 yfehrs. be Mound then? "I’ve "It’s sort of a relief that we have started and S]^nt 20 yearS dft AIDS, afld bc^^liy some S we are havlng a great response froMNew York­ young energeticpefson will cMije along and help leave. At the Health fi^artmCiCshe has moni- ers,” she says. "We’re very ple^ with the nurture the registry,”

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