Asthma is one of the most common health problems among rescue and recovery workers from the World Trade Center (WTC) collapse in 2001. In 2012, Dr. Juan Wisnivesky of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai began a study of asthma of WTC workers. In 2013, the Barry Commoner Center for Health and Environment at Queens College led by Dr. Steven Markowitz joined the study, recruiting participants from the patients with asthma from the Queens World Trade Center Health Program.
The goals of the study are to examine what happens to patients with WTC asthma, how well controlled their asthma is, and whether other physical or mental health problems affect their asthma and ability to control their asthma. We hope to identify how to help patients to better control their asthma symptoms.
To date, over 250 patients have been enrolled in the study with a goal of enrolling 400 in total by late Spring 2016. Preliminary data analysis shows that many of the patients do not have well-controlled asthma. Further analysis of data is ongoing.
Project Publications
Xu KY, Goodman E, Goswami R, Crane M, Crowley L, Busse P, Katz CL, Markowitz S, de la Hoz RE, Jordan HT, Skloot G, Wisnivesky JP. Determinants of asthma morbidity in World Trade Center rescue and recovery workers. Ann Allergy Asthma Immunol. 2016 Nov;117(5):568-570.
Mindlis I, Morales-Raveendran E, Goodman E, Xu K, Vila-Castelar C, Keller K, Crawford G, James S, Katz CL, Crowley LE, De la Hoz RE, Markowitz S, Wisnivesky JP. Post-traumatic stress disorder dimensions and asthma morbidity in World Trade Center rescue and recovery workers. Journal of Asthma. 2016 Dec: 1:1-9