Rising from the ashes: NIEHS awards post-WTC grants. (NIEHS News).Just days after the World Trade Center (WTC WTC World Trade Center, see there ) and Pentagon attacks on 11 September 2001, the NIEHS began addressing the environmental health impacts of those events. Training grants were awarded to worker safety organizations, labor unions, and New York City Fire Department The New York City Fire Department or the Fire Department of New York (FDNY) has the responsibility for protecting the citizens and property of New York City's five boroughs from fires and fire hazards, providing emergency medical services, technical rescue as well as hazardous materials (HazMat) units, which had suffered heavy losses of key emergency response personnel. In addition, five NIEHS centers received funding to expand research, outreach, and education programs. Building on those first efforts, Department of Health and Human Services Noun 1. Department of Health and Human Services - the United States federal department that administers all federal programs dealing with health and welfare; created in 1979 Health and Human Services, HHS secretary Tommy Thompson announced on 7 May 2002 that $10.5 million in additional funds has been allocated for 12 NIEHS grant programs. This additional funding is part of the Supplemental Appropriation for Federal Terrorism Response signed into law by President Bush on 10 January 2002, which centers on bioterrorism response and preparedness. Of the added funds, $6 million will help further emergency response programs begun last fall. This portion will also be used to educate environmental remediation workers as well as train and certify cleanup workers in the use of personal protective equipment. Finally, these funds will also support specialized training for emergency personnel and remediation workers who may be called upon to respond to future attacks using weapons of mass destruction Weapons that are capable of a high order of destruction and/or of being used in such a manner as to destroy large numbers of people. Weapons of mass destruction can be high explosives or nuclear, biological, chemical, and radiological weapons, but exclude the means of transporting or such as weaponized microbials. The other $4.5 million will support research related to the aftermath of the attacks. An exposure assessment will analyze pre- and post-September 11 New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. dust and air samples to determine the presence and concentrations of any potential contaminants, such as lead, asbestos, and particulate matter. Clinical epidemiologic studies will look at any health effects already visible among responders, rescue teams, and residents of the area surrounding the WTC site, and will track these people to determine if any future health effects emerge. Community outreach and health education efforts will focus on health care providers in the lower Manhattan area. Since September, the group of research grantees has met three times to ensure that their efforts complement one another and to help foster the exchange of information and resources among the projects. One goal of this research program, says Allen Dearry, chief of the Chemical Exposures and Molecular Biology Branch in the NIEHS Division of Extramural Research and Training, is to establish a central database containing all the exposure analysis information gathered in lower Manhattan by these projects since September 11. The database is still in the planning stages, and will eventually be housed at one of the NIEHS centers participating in this research. The award recipients are as follows: * International Association of Firefighters ($3,205,597): Support additional HazMat technician training and chemical protective clothing/decontamination training for the New York City Fire Department. * International Union of Operating Engineers The International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) is a labor union within the AFL-CIO representing primarily construction workers who work as heavy equipment operators, mechanics, surveyors, and stationary engineers, who maintain heating and other systems in buildings and ($1,451,047): Support development of training programs to promote quick and appropriate response by skilled construction and support workers for sites affected by weapons of mass destruction and other disasters. Such programs include a training module on the distribution and fit-testing of respiratory protective equipment at the WTC site. * The National Puerto Rican Forum and their consortium members at the Alice Hamilton Occupational Health Center, Office of Applied Innovations, and the Maine Labor Group on Health ($480,000): Train HazMat workers to respond to attacks using weapons of mass destruction. * University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey is the state-run health sciences institution of New Jersey and comprises eight distinct academic units: the New Jersey Medical School, the New Jersey Dental School, the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, the School of School of Public Health ($398,711): Provide Transit Union workers in lower Manhattan with HazMat technician training. Train members of the New York District Council of Carpenters Labor Technical College in WTC cleanup activities. Support the New Jersey state police in training HazMat police and hospital workers to effectively respond to emergency situations involving weapons of mass destruction. * The Laborers--Associated General Contractors Education and Training Fund ($314,645): Train workers employed on the WTC cleanup and subway reconstruction project. Train non-English-speaking workers in the New York City area who are involved in anthrax remediation sites. * The Center to Protect Workers' Rights ($100,000): Continue health and safety training modules for workers at the WTC site, focusing on awareness of existing and new hazards associated with the site during reconstruction. * Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Mount Sinai School of Medicine is a medical school found in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. ($1,309,990): Conduct a health study of 200 ironworkers dismantling the remains of the WTC. Analyze images of the plumes of pollutants formed by the collision, collapse, and burning of the WTC to assess exposures of the immediate area. * New York University New York University, mainly in New York City; coeducational; chartered 1831, opened 1832 as the Univ. of the City of New York, renamed 1896. It comprises 13 schools and colleges, maintaining 4 main centers (including the Medical Center) in the city, as well as the , with Columbia University, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) is a world-class research institution specializing in the Earth sciences and is part of Columbia University. The current director of Lamont is G. Michael Purdy. , and the University of Rochester The University of Rochester (UR) is a private, coeducational and nonsectarian research university located in Rochester, New York. The university is one of 62 elected members of the Association of American Universities. ($1,240,139): Study respiratory symptoms in 300 New York City firefighters, plus survey and follow up with 6,000 residents, with community outreach including public forums. * The Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University, mainly at Baltimore, Md. Johns Hopkins in 1867 had a group of his associates incorporated as the trustees of a university and a hospital, endowing each with $3.5 million. Daniel C. ($601,294): Develop a registry of the estimated 3,000-4,000 workers involved in cleanup at the WTC site for study by questionnaires and function tests. Extend outreach to these workers. * Columbia University ($432,480): Study pregnancy outcomes and subsequent child development in a sample of exposed women. Analyze samples of air and dust collected between October 2001 and January 2002, and of New York City soils and harbor and lake sediments. * University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health The University of North Carolina’s School of Public Health focuses on health promotion and disease prevention for individuals, groups and entire populations – across North Carolina and around the world. ($302,943): Assess a monitoring device used for worker safety. Assess filter samples gathered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), independent agency of the U.S. government, with headquarters in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1970 to reduce and control air and water pollution, noise pollution, and radiation and to ensure the safe handling and at Ground Zero in the weeks following the WTC attack. * Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey/Robert Wood Johnson Medical School ($563,154): Assess surrounding communities' real and perceived risks, including possible increases in premature births and birth defects, post-traumatic stress disorder post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), mental disorder that follows an occurrence of extreme psychological stress, such as that encountered in war or resulting from violence, childhood abuse, sexual abuse, or serious accident. , depression, and panic disorders. |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion