World Trade Center environmental data report, 2001-2002

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

advocates and others, calling on it to allow public input on procedures for "safeguarding" and sharing a vaguely defined set of information between firefighters, police officers, public health researchers, and federal, state and local governments. In a news release, they wrote, "Under the auspices of fighting terrorism, the Department is poised to write — without guarantees for public input — procedures that could sweep up otherwise publicly available information that has nothing to do with terrorism into a zone of secrecy while subjecting millions of Americans to confidentiality agreements."

Disaster experts, instead, emphasize that officials should enlist the public’s help. They stress that it is important to have the public trust so that it can be depended upon to help in a crisis, by, for example, stopping cell phone use so as not to deter the transmission of emergency information.

Recommendation: "Make data available as soon as possible, with a registry ofsamples. ’’

(5) Better training andpreparedness

Fire departments are not used to respirators needed for hazardous events unless they’ve been trained. Some first responders don’t fall into current “environmental health” training and went into the WTC disaster without any sense of the consequences of being exposed, such as tow truck operators, electricians, telephone repair people and others need to be considered. (4)

In responding to the World Trade Center disaster, local hospitals were ready for any casualties and injured victims because they were prepared fi-om the last terrorist attacks. In Arlington County, local emergency responders had experience from an earlier airport disaster. In New York City, by contract, local, state and federal agencies were not prepared to coordinate their efforts because those disaster plans had never been tested before. And, strikingly, the Rand Corporation has found that few localities are prepared for chemical or biological terrorism (5)

Recommendation: Have a broader definition offirst responder, says Mark Penn of the Arlington County Office ofEmergency Management.

(6) Better health registries and health tracking. Localities should start developing health data right away, instead ofsimply relying on samples and monitors.

New York’s 9/11 Environmental Action group complained that the city waited too long—two years—to start its promised Health Registry in New York, months after physicians, researchers and residents clamored for it.

A similar charge is leveled at the national level. “The September 11 attacks have made the gap in our public health knowledge more dangerous than ever,” according to advocates for better disease monitoring. “While Congress is considering how to help the public health system be better prepared in the face of unprecedented health risks—^whether fi-om the increasing concerns of disease clusters or the unforeseen threats from chemical and biological terrorism—we must make sure investments are made in the right way and that they part of a long-term commitment.”

While we track more than 50 infectious diseases in this country, the Pew Environmental Health Commission found almost no national monitoring of chronic diseases. (“For instance, more than half of the states have no ongoing tracking and monitoring of asthma, and less than half of the nation's population is covered by birth defects registries. Only nine states report tracking developmental disabilities such as mental retardation and cerebral palsy.”)

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