Airway Obstruction Dominates Health Issues in FDNY WTC Workers
News Briefs from the March Issue of CHEST
New evidence shows that airway obstruction may be the cause of reduced lung function in World Trade Center (WTC) rescue workers from the New York City Fire Department (FDNY). Researchers from FDNY, New York University, and Albert Einstein College of Medicine, analyzed pulmonary function test results in 1,750 participants from the FDNY–WTC Monitoring Program. Of the participants, 59 percent (n=1,051) had obstructive airway disease based on at least one of the following: FEV1/FVC, bronchodilator responsiveness, hyperactivity or elevated residual volume. After adjusting for age, gender, race, height and weight, and tobacco use, lung function decline was still correlated with airway obstruction. Chest CT scans also revealed that few participants had interstitial lung disease. This article is published in the March issue of CHEST, the peer–reviewed journal of the American College of Chest Physicians.
