Health Issues Post 9/11 - Essay Example

?Running head: HEALTH ISSUES POST 9/11 Health Issues Post 9/11 9/11 is a traumatic day in the history of America when hijacked jets hit the two towers of the World Trade Centre resulting in their collapse. This resulted in severe environmental contamination and it affected the health of those staying in the surroundings. The health hazards can be categorized as psychological and physical issues. The psychological hazards that were noted involved post traumatic stress disorder increase in substance use and impact on parent role perception and behavior. The paper discusses all these issues with an analytical perspective and an emphasis on the role of the government. Introduction: 9/11 has been and will always remain as a traumatic day in the minds of Americans. A day when hijacked jets hit the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York and the Pentagon outside Washington. Another plane smashed into a pasture in Pennsylvania. The twin towers of the World Trade Centre collapsed. Trading halted in the Wall Street. The then American President George W Bush addressed the nation and promised to bring the perpetrators of the attack to book. International experts strongly criticized the incident. This event of terror shook the Americans for an entire decade and its aftereffects- both medical and psychological persist even today. The psychological impact involves Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), increase in substance use and impact on parent role, perception and behaviors related to the 9/11 tragedy. The medical impact involves increase in the rate of cesarean delivery, respiratory symptoms of people staying around the World Trade Center and of fire fighters and others who fought the disaster. Impact on Health Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition (1994), “the essential feature of the disorder is the development of characteristic symptoms following exposure to an extreme traumatic stressor involving direct personal experience of an event that involves actual or threatened death or serious injury, or other threat to one’s physical integrity; or witnessing [such an event]; or learning about [such an event] experienced by a family member or other close associate”. (Thomas, 2004, pp. 223-224) This disorder is found to cause severe depression among individuals on exposure to sound, smell, and visuals similar to those faced by the individual in the traumatic event. This disorder has been noted among the Americans post 9/11. Actual stress is evident among the Americans in the aftermath of 9/11 tragedy as they shunned public places, cancelled travel plans and tried to stay in close proximity with their friends and families. (Thomas, 2004, pp. 223-224) Increase in substance use: After the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centre, a significant increase in substance use was noted among the Americans. Consumption of cigarettes, alcohol and marijuana increased to get rid of stress and trauma associated with the event. A research showed an increase in substance use in 10% of the sample which consisted of 1040 respondents. It also showed that high school students were three times more likely to increase substance use as compared to middle school students. Those students with higher exposure to the incident were twice more likely to increase substance use compared to those with lower exposure to the incident. (Chemtob, Nomura et. al. 2008, pp. 337-345) Impact on parent role, perception and behavior: Parenting perceptions, activities and behavior were considerably affected by the trauma associated with the 9/11 terrorist attacks. A research conducted in this regard tried to measure the extent of change in the six separate important measures of parenting- bonding, discipline, education, general welfare and protection, responsiveness, and sensitivity. The only parent measure that did not change after 9/11 was education. The findings of this study reveal the impact of 9/11 on parenting issues. (Mowder, Guttman et. al. 2006, pp. 733-741) Increase in rate of cesarean delivery: According to preliminary data from National Center of Health Statistics, cesarean delivery reached an all time high of 30.2 percent in the United States in the year 2005. The incidences cesarean delivery came down to some extent in the mid 90s but it has increased by 46% since 1996. The increase is found among all races. Such high rate of increase of cesarean delivery can be attributed to 9/11 terrorist attacks. (NEWS, 2007, p. 183) Respiratory symptoms of residents around the World Trade Centre: The crumple of the twin towers of the World Trade Centre on 9/11 caused much contamination in the surrounding environment. The dust particles, cement, asbestos, glass fibers, smoke and combustion products of fire created long lasting environmental damage. Though people were evacuated from the vicinity of the incident, their exposure to these harmful pollutants may have been quite significant by that time. The dust particles later lay on the external side and inside buildings. As residents returned to their homes, they were recommended to use high efficiency particulate air filter vacuums, wet mops and other self cleaning methods to remove dust particles. A research conducted in this regard reveals upper and lower respiratory symptoms among residents living near the damage area. The symptoms have persisted even a year after the incident. The research also found a direct association between exposure intensity and symptom occurrence. Also, residents who contacted exposure through multiple sources have greater risk of constant respiratory symptoms. (Lin, Reibman et. al. 2009, pp. 325-331) Respiratory symptoms of firefighters who fought the disaster: The Fire Department of New York was engaged in continuous rescue/recovery operations till July 2002. The operations involved greater than 15000 rescue workers that involved firefighters and emergency medical service workers. These people were exposed to severe pollution and mental trauma while clearing the mess. A research in this regard reveals remarkably high symptoms of cough, “dyspnea”, “wheeze”, “rhinosinusitis” and “sore throat” in year 2001 among the 10378 firefighters involved in rescue operations. Initial respiratory symptoms post 9/11 involved cough and sore throat but later, wheeze, dyspnea and rhinosinusitis were more prevalent. Even after four years of 9/11, incidence of cough which was almost coming down in frequency of occurrence, was found in the firefighters at four times the pre 9/11 level. Other symptoms were 8.2 to 28.6 times of the pre 9/11 rates. (Webber, Gustave et. al. 2009, pp. 977-979) Role of Government A Manhattan democrat Alan Jay Gerson says- ''We will never successfully rebuild Lower Manhattan until we can all be assured that we have successfully cleaned up Lower Manhattan''. (DePalma, 2006) This statement highlights the necessity of massive clean up operation by the Government. One latest effort of the government in this regard has been discarded by the City Council for technical and scientific flaws. The way in which environmental contamination and health hazards has been handled by the Environment Protection Agency has come under sharp criticism from various sectors. Various clean up operations have been undertaken by the government since 9/11, but community concerns over contamination from dangerous pollutants like lead, mercury and asbestos still remain. In the year 2002, the first decontamination program of the government involved 4000 of the 23000 affected apartments. The City Council has introduced a resolution urging the government to devise new plans to clean up residences and workplaces in Manhattan and Brooklyn. The possibility of using slag wool as an indicator for Trade Centre dust is being analyzed. A sampling plan was once considered to clean up apartments but later it has been dropped by the federal agency as the slag wool marker was rejected. A panel of scientific and health experts that was advising the federal agency on the clean up operations has been dismantled. (DePalma, 2006) Reasons behind Government’s Role The role played by the Government in handling health issues and decontamination operations since 9/11 reflects its confusion and inexperience to deal with such matters. Mass destruction of the scale of 9/11 do not happen everyday. The government is faced with an unprecedented event and hence it is confused over what it should do. Lack of trust of the victims and criticism from other agencies has made the government shaky in its actions. As is seen in the previous section, how the government has planned a course of action and later withdrawn it for various reasons. It reflects lack of adequate planning and consultation with experts on the part of the government. This indecisive position of the government has resulted in failure to address the critical issues. The Government did not cover up/downplayed the dangers associated with environmental contamination post 9/11. It was more of accidental mistake on the part of the government because of inexperience to deal with such magnitude of environmental pollution. The local, state and federal government cannot be entirely blamed for the health problems of American citizen post 9/11. But it can be certainly said that the government could have shown more resolve in dealing with the issues. The way ahead At first the government should formulate a plan in consultation with environmental, medical, psychological and other experts to tackle the health hazards that have arisen since 9/11. After thorough planning, the government should focus on implementation of the plan. The psychological impacts can be addressed by regular counseling sessions and the government must encourage the victims to take them. The victims should be convinced that security has been improved and that there are no further threats of such events in the future. Bringing the 9/11 perpetrators to book can pacify the psychological impact on the victims. The killing of Osama Bin Laden in a recent operation by the US is a great progress in this regard. The medical impact on the victims should be treated by expert physicians. The causes of such health hazards have to be addressed by developing suitable clean up plans and evacuating victims- if necessary. Respiratory symptoms which seem to be the most severe of all have to be addressed. The government should look to involve all the concerned stakeholders in this process and look to neutralize their resistance. It should show more resolve to sustain with whatever action it takes. Conclusion The psychological problems arose because of the severe trauma associated with 9/11. These are posttraumatic stress disorder, increase in substance use and impact on parent role, perception and behaviors related to the 9/11 tragedy. The medical problems mostly related to respiratory symptoms came up as a result of continuous exposure to pollution from dreadful ingredients like asbestos, lead, mercury and dust particles. Over the years, the government took steps to combat the situation. But it was never effective in its implementation because of lack of resolve. It also failed to win trust of the community and faced severe criticism from various sectors. Amongst the medical impacts, respiratory symptoms of the residents living near the World Trade Centre and of the firefighters who fought the disaster were the most severe. The federal government took various steps in clean up operations but none were successful. This failure on the part of the government has faced sharp criticism from various agencies. But the government cannot be entirely blamed for this because of its inexperience in tackling such issues in the past. The way forward for the government is to devise a strong plan in consultation with various experts and to implement such plan with resolve. BIBLIOGRAPHY Chemtob, M. Nomura Y. Josephson L. et. al. (2008), Substance use and functional impairment among adolescents directly exposed to the 2001 World Trade Center attacks, Disaster, 33, 337-345 DePalma, A. (2006), The City Council is poised to reject, New York Times, 03624331, retrieved on June 21, 2011 from: http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=5&hid=18&sid=94c3aa4e-c98f-4c72-be99-12151e1c37b9%40sessionmgr113&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=aph&AN=28246397 Thomas, S.P. (2004) FROM THE EDITOR—THE DEBATE ABOUT POSTTRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER AND SOME THOUGHTS ABOUT 9/11, (2004), Issues Ment. Health Nurse, 25, 223-224 Lin, S. Jones, R. Reibman, J. et. al. (2007), Reported Respiratory Symptoms and Adverse Home Conditions after 9/11 among Residents Living near the World Trade Center, Informa Healthcare, 44, 325-331 Mowder, B. A. Guttman, M. Rubinson, F. et. al. (2006), Parents, children, and trauma: Parent role perceptions and behaviors related to the 9/11 tragedy, Springer, 15, 733-741 NEWS, (June, 2007), The 2005 cesarean delivery rate reached an all-time high, BIRTH, 34(2), 183 Webber, M.P. Gustave, J. Lee, R. et. al. (June, 2009), Trends in Respiratory Symptoms of Firefighters Exposed to the World Trade Center Disaster: 2001–2005, Environmental Health Perspectives, 117(6), 977-979 Read More