# Mortality among WTC rescue and recovery workers

> **NIH ALLCDC U01** · ICAHN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AT MOUNT SINAI · 2020 · $594,371

## Abstract

Summary
Three cohorts of WTC rescue and recovery workers maintained at the Fire Department of the City of New York
(FDNY), the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (WTC General Responders Cohort, WTCGRC), and the
New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (WTC Health Registry, WTCHR) are currently
engaged in a combined (pooled) analysis of cancer risk, latency and survival. Mortality among WTC rescue
and recovery workers from the WTCHR and the WTCGRC cohorts, compared to the general population and
based on relatively small numbers of deaths, showed a strong healthy worker effect HWE. This comparison
can obfuscate increases in mortality due to WTC-related exposure. We propose to use the combined dataset
of the three cohorts to analyze overall mortality and causes of death with sufficient number of events, taking
advantage of the larger number of expected deaths and the additional time elapsed, and to use multiple
causes of death. Specifically, we plan to perform a follow-up of mortality in a combined dataset of rescue and
recovery workers from the three WTC cohorts, to use the combined WTC cohort to estimate overall mortality,
and mortality from major causes, and to compare them to external reference rates. In addition, we plan to
assess the role of WTC exposure in determining overall mortality and mortality from major causes among WTC
rescue and recovery workers, and its possible interaction with other determinants of death (tobacco smoking,
co-morbidities), in explaining the decreased mortality compared to the external reference populations. We
further plan to estimate the temporal pattern of overall and cause-specific mortality in WTC rescue and
recovery workers, notably whether mortality increases with time from the attacks. Finally, we plan to compare
overall mortality and mortality from major causes of specific occupational groups within the WTC combined
cohort, including police officers, firefighters, and construction workers, with other cohorts of the same groups of
workers. The proposed analysis will provide strong evidence on the presence or absence of an association of
WTC exposure and mortality among rescue/recovery workers, after accounting for other major determinants of
mortality, and will inform on the best methodology to quantitative assess the effects of disasters on mortality of
exposed individuals.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9966827
- **Project number:** 5U01OH011480-04
- **Recipient organization:** ICAHN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AT MOUNT SINAI
- **Principal Investigator:** Paolo Boffetta
- **Activity code:** U01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** ALLCDC
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $594,371
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-07-01 → 2021-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9966827

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9966827, Mortality among WTC rescue and recovery workers (5U01OH011480-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-29 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9966827. Licensed CC0.

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