NEW YORK — Most of the New York City firefighters and medics whose lungs were damaged by pulverized masonry and glass from the World Trade Center attacks are not improving as time goes by, according to a new study.
The results are based on breathing tests from nearly 11,000 firefighters who were at ground zero in the first two weeks, when the dust cloud was thickest. Of the firefighters who didn’t smoke, 13 percent were still scoring below normal up to seven years later, the study found. That number was down from 18 percent who initially tested below normal after the attacks.
Of the nearly 2,000 emergency medical technicians included in the analysis, 22 percent of the nonsmokers scored below normal on their most recent breathing test.
The research is in today’s New England Journal of Medicine.
