The report, released by the New York City health department and published in the Journal of Urban Health examines health effects among all 71,437 participants of the WTC Health Registry for up to 20 years after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. This is an estimated 17.4 percent of the people exposed to the disaster.
The participants include rescue and recovery workers, Lower Manhattan residents, area workers, commuters, and passersby. The analysis suggests that 35,000 to 70,000 people developed post-traumatic stress disorder and 3,800 to 12,600 people may have developed asthma.
Overall, half of the registrants reported being in the dust cloud from the collapsing towers; 70 percent witnessed a traumatic sight, such as a plane hitting the tower; and 13 percent sustained an injury that day, according to the Health Department.
Nearly 3 percent of all adults listed in the Registry reported they had developed new asthma within 2-3 years of the attack while 16 percent likely had post traumatic stress disorder and 8 percent had severe psychological distress.
The rate of new asthma was highest, 6 percent, among rescue and recovery workers who worked on the debris pile at Ground Zero. An estimated 400,000 people were heavily exposed to the disaster.
