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* From the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine (Drs. Skloot, Fischler, and Teirstein), Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY; Department of Medicine (Dr. M. Goldman), UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA; Department of Obstetrics/Gynecology and General Internal Medicine (Ms. C. Goldman), West Los Angeles VA Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA; Department of Family Medicine and Community Health (Dr. Schechter), Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, NY; and Division of Environmental and Occupational Medicine (Dr. Levin), Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY.
Correspondence to: Gwen Skloot, MD, FCCP, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Mount Sinai Medical Center, One Gustave L. Levy Place, Box 1232, New York, NY 10029; e-mail: Gwen.Skloot{at}msnyuhealth.org
Study objectives: To characterize respiratory abnormalities in a convenience sample of ironworkers exposed at the World Trade Center (WTC) disaster site for varying lengths of time between September 11, 2001, and February 8, 2002.
Design: Cross-sectional study.
Setting: The Mount Sinai Medical Center, a large tertiary hospital.
Participants: Ninety-six ironworkers engaged in rescue and recovery with exposure onset between September 11, 2001, and September 15, 2001, who responded to an invitation to undergo respiratory evaluation.
Measurements: Medical and exposure history, physical examination, spirometry, forced oscillation (FO), and chest radiographs. The relationships of prevalence of respiratory symptoms and presence of obstructive physiology to smoking, exposure on September 11, duration of exposure, and type of respiratory protection were examined using univariate and linear and logistic regression analyses.
Results: Seventy-four of 96 workers (77%) had one or more respiratory symptoms (similar in smokers [49 of 63 subjects, 78%] and nonsmokers [25 of 33 subjects, 76%]). Cough was the most common symptom (62 of 96 subjects, 65%), and was associated with exposure on September 11. Chest examination and radiograph findings were abnormal in 10 subjects (10%) and 19 subjects (20%), respectively. FO revealed dysfunction in 34 of 64 subjects tested (53%), while spirometry suggested obstruction in only 11 subjects (17%). Lack of a respirator with canister was a risk factor for large airway dysfunction, and cigarette smoking was a risk factor for small airway dysfunction. No other relationships reached statistical significance.
Conclusions: Respiratory symptoms occurred in the majority of ironworkers at the WTC disaster site and were not attributable to smoking. Exposure on September 11 was associated with a greater prevalence of cough. Objective evidence of lung disease was less common. Spirometry underestimated the prevalence of lung function abnormalities in comparison to FO. Continuing evaluation of symptoms, chest radiographs, and airway dysfunction should determine whether long-term clinical sequelae will exist.
Key Words: exposure • forced oscillation • ironworkers • September 11, 2001 • spirometry • World Trade Center disaster
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