Homeland Security Committee Meets to Discuss Care for First Responders
RESPONSE
The Norwalk Hour
Kelly Carroll
Boston University Washington News Service
9/20/07
WASHINGTON, Sept. 20 – Treatment of ongoing health issues for emergency workers who first responded to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York City continues to be insufficient, a government investigator told Congress Thursday.
The testimony came as part of an ongoing effort by the House Committee on Homeland Security to focus on the health and safety of first responders to catastrophic attacks or disaster areas.
“We are so much further ahead than we were on September 11,” Rep. Christopher Shays (R-4th), a committee member, said in an interview. “But we still have a way to go.”
In his testimony on the progress being made in caring for the health of first responders, Dr. John Howard, director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health within the Department of Health and Human Services, outlined strides being taken in enhancing and expanding this care.
These include the World Trade Center Worker and Volunteer Medical Monitoring and Treatment Program and the World Trade Center Responder Health Consortium, which both work to provide screenings, monitoring and treatment of conditions related to early response to the scene of the World Trade Center attacks in 2001.
Those responding to Ground Zero on September 11 were exposed to “an intense, complex and unprecedented mix of toxic chemicals,” including glass fibers, glass shards, asbestos, lead and hydrochloric acid, Dr. Philip Landrigan told the committee in written testimony Thursday.
In follow-up examinations of more than 9,000 World Trade Center responders, more than 7,000 received treatment for physical health problems, while just below 5,000 received treatment for mental-related health problems
Cynthia A. Bascetta, director of health care for the Government Accountability Office, said she did not believe this is good enough.
“These efforts are not complete,” she testified “The stop-and-start history of the department’s efforts to serve these groups does not provide assurance that the latest efforts to extend screening and monitoring services to these responders will be successful and sustained over time.”
The Government Accountability Office found that the responder screening program run by the Department of Health and Human Services has had trouble with consistency and has twice stopped scheduling screening exams because of administrative changes and because the department was considering expanding the program, which did not happen.
“If federal responders do not receive monitoring, health conditions that arise later may not be diagnosed and treated,” she said. “Knowledge of the health effects of the…disaster may be incomplete.”
Nicholas Visconti, the deputy chief of the New York City Fire Department, testified that there were avoidable failures on the day the twin towers were attacked. He cited problems in personnel, communication, tools and training, said changes were needed in these areas and called for the federal government to help local responders in times of crisis.
“As the federal government continues to ask more of its first responders, we owe it to them to ensure that our nation’s policies and priorities enable their safe and effective response,” he said.
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