Safety and health of heavy equipment operators at Ground Zero.

The despicable attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon have galvanized this nation into action against terrorism. We have begun unprecedented efforts to respond more effectively if we suffer other attacks, but we must do more to remember the workers in our planning. The Natural Resources Defense Council reported that ‘‘Environmental health protection forworkers atGroundZerowas given lower importance compared to other priorities.’’ [Nordgren et al., 2002]. That was the experience of the author, the head of a team of safety and health specialists from the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE), who arrived at Ground Zero on September 17th to ensure the protection of the heavy equipment operators toiling in the smoking, twisted piles of debris. The team collected approximately 150 air samples and distributed 11,000 respirators. The drive to clean up this outrage against our nation was the overriding priority at theWorld Trade Center. It became a juggernaut, demanding two 12-hr workshifts, 7 days a week. Safety and health professionals performed admirably but were constantly playing catch-up to protect weary workers in what the head of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) called ‘‘potentially the most dangerous workplace in America’’ [OSHA, 2002a, March 3rd]. No one was killed cleaning up the destruction but there were approximately thirty near misses that could have resulted in fatalities. Through October 10th, there were 7,160 visits to themedical tents or toNewYorkCity emergency rooms, with 30 fractures and 342 lacerations reported [New City Department of Health, 2001]. One worker’s toes were cut off when a steel beam fell on his foot, another had his leg fractured by an oxygen bottle. The chief physician for New York City’s firefighters reported 22% of a sample of the 7,000 firefighters involved with rescue and recovery at Ground Zero had respiratory complaints and tested positive for asthma-like conditions [Prezant, 2001].