THURSDAY, Sept. 5, 2002 (HealthDayNews) --The Sept. 11 World Trade Center attack had a direct, bad effect on New York area people with asthma, in both the lungs and the brain.
At its weekly
Morbidity and Mortality Report meeting today, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gave statistics on some of the environmental after-effects of the terrorist attack that occurred almost a year ago.
Some of it was physical, the result of breathing air polluted with the dust cloud created by the collapse of the two 103-story buildings. But a lot of it was psychological, with the incidence of worsened symptoms greatest in those who already had stresses in their lives, such as the recent death of a close relative, says the report.
A telephone survey of 1,008 people living south of 110th Street in Manhattan found that 27 percent of those with asthma reported worsening symptoms in the weeks after Sept. 11, says Dr. Thomas Matte, an environmental diseases specialist at the CDC who helped compile the report.
"Asthma attacks usually increase in the fall, so some increase was not unexpected," Matte says. "But the results suggest that both the environmental and psychological consequences of the attack were related to the reported effect."
The findings offers guidelines for people with asthma and their physicians in other disaster-like situations, such as the major forest fires that have occurred this year, Matte says.
"Following a disaster, it is particularly important to know that people with asthma are doing things helpful to control their asthma," Matte says. "Clinicians should be aware of the possibility that there will be an increase in people presenting with asthma symptoms."
There is strong evidence that other stresses had a major effect, says Joanne Fagan, a consultant to the New York Academy of Medicine, which participated in the survey.
"Of the people with zero life stressors in the 12 months before the attack, 21 percent reported increased symptoms," Fagan says. "Of those with two or more life stressors, more than 46 percent reported increased symptoms. And 47 percent of those who reported a panic attack at the time of the event or who had depression during the preceding month had more severe symptoms."
The expected seasonal effect does confuse the issue somewhat, Matte acknowledges. But the study asked about the severity of symptoms, not the number of attacks, he adds.
Another survey found that the health effects of Sept. 11 extended beyond Manhattan, says Dr. Wayne Giles, a CDC chronic diseases specialist. A study covering New York, New Jersey and Connecticut found that 21 percent of smokers increased their smoking, 1 percent of nonsmokers started smoking and 3 percent of drinkers increased their alcohol intake, Giles says.
Studies of the longer-term effects of the World Trade Center attack are continuing, Fagan says. "We have conducted two other surveys in the suburbs and other parts of New York," she says, referring to the New York Academy of Medicine. "The Department of Health and other agencies in New York are also working on this."
What To Do
Basic information about asthma is available from the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America.
