London.  Adults who were near the World Trade Center around the time it was attacked in 2001 have been twice as likely to develop asthma as the general population, a new analysis of public health registry data has found.

The study of data from the World Trade Center Health Registry, released by the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, tracks health effects two to three years after the attack. It suggests that 3 percent of adult residents and workers in the area on the morning of the attack and soon afterward have developed Asthma, twice the rate of newly diagnosed asthma in the general population for the same period.

Asthma was more prevalent among adult residents who did not leave the area on 9/11 or who returned home within two days — nearly 4 percent — and less prevalent, at 2 percent, among those who were away until December.

The study estimates that 3,800 to 12,600 adults exposed to the World Trade Center disaster site developed asthma, and that 35,000 to 70,000 adults developed post-traumatic stress syndrome. Women, members of minorities and people with low incomes have higher rates of both physical and mental problems, the study says.

Lorna Thorpe, a deputy commissioner for epidemiology in the health department, said that the analysis provided high and low estimates to account for the possibility that people who were feeling sick or who had had more intense exposure to the disaster site might have been more motivated to sign up for the study. The numbers were based on telephone interviews.

 

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