Category: New York
New York Receives “F” for Roadway Evacuation Ability
EVACUATION-HOUR
The Norwalk Hour
Jamie Hammon
Boston University Washington News Service
10-12-06
WASHINGTON, Oct. 12– If a disaster caused everyone to evacuate New York City tomorrow, the evacuation itself might be a disaster, according to a new study released Thursday, which gave the city an “F” grade for its evacuation capabilities.
New York was not alone in its poor grade. The study, conducted by the American Highway Users Alliance, assessed the evacuation capacity of the 37 U.S. urban areas with populations of more than one million, and found that more than half of the areas failed. The alliance is a non-profit advocacy organization that represents the transportation community.
In the wake of epic catastrophes like 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, the issue of mass evacuation is both brand new and of undeniable importance.
“This study makes clear that not only the physical infrastructure must be adequate to accommodate large volumes of traffic with short notice, but also the operational infrastructure must be adequate,” said Peter J. Pantuso, president of the American Bus Association, which helped fund the study.
One piece of good news from the study, said Gregory M. Cohen, president of the American Highway Users Alliance, is that nearly every area is better off when it comes to automobile access than New Orleans was in 2005.
There was one exception, however. “Only New York scores lower,” Cohen said.
Even though 90 percent of those who commute from Connecticut to New York rely on railways rather than roadways, they are still not immune to the congestion.
“We don’t have enough seats for passengers as it is – we have passengers that are paying $300 a month as it is to stand for an hour each way,” said Jim Cameron, chairman of Connecticut Metro North Rail Commuter Council. “So if there was an evacuation, if there was something that had to be immediate – the trains are jammed as it is.”
There are 2,400 Norwalk residents who commute daily by train to New York.
Suggestions made in the study include the creation of bus-exclusive lanes, expanded roadways, increased automobile accessibility among low-income households, more complete planning from transportation officials, and the establishment of national urban evacuation standards by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
“The dedicated bus lane I think is a good idea,” Cameron said. “Bus lanes I think make sense in areas that don’t have the density to support a rail infrastructure. But you can’t put a bus on a crowded highway and expect to attract riders, because now they are stuck in traffic, but they are stuck with people they’d rather not be sitting next to.”
Metro-North Railroad has contingency plans in place in case of an emergency, said spokesman Dan Brucker. “We let the Metropolitan Transit Authority and the New York City Office of Emergency Management know what kinds of equipment we have available and how many trains we can manage in and out of Grand Central Station,” he said.
The new study presents a challenge, Pantuso said, “to cities, states, planners, and both private and public entities. We must work together in order for our road system and our operational planning to meet the challenge of mass evacuation so that, together, we can deliver people to safety.”
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Small City, Big Risk
By Tara Fehr
WASHINGTON, Dec. 15 - Bulletproof vests for canines and trailers for transporting lawn mowers may not be what most Americans expect from homeland security.
While Connecticut may have passed on buying the vests (Ohio did not) and the trailers (Texas bought them) with money earmarked for security needs, the state's safety in a post 9/11 world remains a challenge.
New London does not have as many people as other cities that are considered at high risk, such as New York City, but it does have some of the highest risks, particularly in its infrastructure and its transportation routes.
The city has a major submarine base and a nuclear power plant nearby. It has a deepwater port facility. Close to two million people use the Long Island Sound ferries every year, and there are major rail stations for Amtrak and Metro-North Railroad. Freight traffic flows through New London by rail and along Interstate 95, which goes right through the middle of the city.
"The folks that allocate money, whether it's to the state or local government, have not done the best job they can do in determining where the risks are and allocating money appropriately," said Richard Brown, New London's city manager. "I'm not convinced that the allocation formula that was developed at the federal level in the first place was appropriate."
Federal funds for preparing for future terrorist attacks comes from the Department of Homeland Security, which was created in 2002 after the Sept. 11 attacks. The government allocates money to the states, which in turn allocate the funds to municipalities. In the past, grant money was based on population, but there is a new effort to include risk assessment in the decision-making process.
The federal government disburses its general homeland security grant to each state based on a package of requests submitted by the state's homeland security administrator that addresses where the risk, threat and need is present in the state.
Federal officials would not give details of the assessment process because of national security reasons, but Clark Ervin, the department's former inspector general, said it is not defined. He said the department needed a comprehensive nationwide assessment checklist that would be applied uniformly.
The department of has not made its allocations for 2006, but every state can make a case for needing money, Ervin said.
"We're optimistic that because we're so close to New York and Boston and because of the level of transportation services that we have in the state that we'll be able to get additional funding," said Wayne Sanford, deputy commissioner of Emergency Management and Homeland Security in Connecticut.
Connecticut will also receive a share of regional funds for its transit system. Homeland security allocates transit funds regionally because lines often run through more than one states So Connecticut, New Jersey and New York together received an estimated $37 million this year, according to the Connecticut Department of Transportation.
The federal department generally allocates money in a block grant to the states, which then disburse funds to local governments. Steven Llanes, spokesman for the federal agency, said it allocates funds based on the threat applications and then monitors the states' spending.
Sanford said 80 percent of the state's funds are designated for municipalities. A committee of approximately two dozen persons - including representatives of state agencies and local police, fire and emergency management departments - recommends where to distribute the rest of the money in four key areas: prevention, protection, response and recovery.
In fiscal year 2005 New London received $110,000 from the general homeland security grants and $61,838 from a separate law enforcement terrorism protection program, Sanford said.
New London was one of six or seven communities that received an additional $119,000 . because it was considered a more densely populated area, but Sanford said he hopes for an increased amount from the federal government for 2006, based on the added risk-based criteria.
New London is potentially at high risk, according to Ian Cuthbertson, director of the World Policy Institute, which studies globalization and national security and is part of the New School in New York City.
"New London is a good target for terror," Cuthbertson said. "The harder it is to attack bigger areas, the more danger medium-sized cities are in because terrorists look for soft targets."
Brown agreed about his city's vulnerabilities. "We're a major hub," he said.
In protecting its railroad systems, ports and highways, New London works with multiple agencies.
Amtrak, for example, has its own police force, cooperates with other law enforcement agencies, uses canine teams and performs random ticket checks on trains.
Cliff Black, Amtrak spokesman, said he remains hopeful that Amtrak will receive more funds from Homeland Security under the risk-based formula.
The Coast Guard also hopes to benefit from the new formula as it works under a "do more with less motto," Vanessa Looney, a Coast Guard spokeswoman said.
"We're always asking for more resources, but then again, everybody is doing that," said Roger Guest, a Coast Guard port security specialist in Connecticut.
Guest said that the area's nuclear power plant and submarine base can stretch the Coast Guard's resources. "That is why we try to partner with the locals to assist with everything we need," he said.
Local law enforcement also assists in highway security. Federal, state and local governments make a combined effort to secure the roads, Donna Tadiello, spokeswoman for the state police, said.
As part of the Connecticut Department of Public Safety, the state police will perform commercial vehicle inspections and respond to specific threats while looking for unusual behavior.
Traffic on major local roads, particularly Interstate 95, has been a concern for some residents.
"The road system is woefully inadequate to handle the volume of traffic," city manager Brown said. "You only have to be in this area for a little while to see how without any problems whatsoever the roads can just close down completely."
Although Tadiello said that the state has an evacuation plan, Brown questioned how effective it can be when an accident on I-95 could close the road down in both directions for hours.
"We need money," Brown said.
But not everyone thinks increased funds will help make for a more secure Connecticut.
"Security is going to be the kind of issue where everybody is going to say, 'You can't be too secure, there can't be enough money or there can't be too much money,' " said Chris Cooper, Connecticut Department of Transportation spokesman said. "Given the resources that are available, I think that everybody is reasonably sure that there is a strong level of security at our facilities."
Ervin said he was convinced when he was a Homeland Security inspector general and remains convinced today that a 100 percent risk assessment is the only way to secure the country from terrorist threats. But he said that won't happen until the government ranks the country's infrastructure so that cities such as New London do not get lost between two big targets.
"Until you have that, the country is flying blind," Ervin said.
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Doctor Who Dedicated His Life to AIDS is Now the Head of the Department Preparing for Avian Flu
WASHINGTON, Nov. 22 -- Anthony S. Fauci credits his Jesuit education with teaching him social responsibility. His years at Holy Cross College, and earlier at a Jesuit high school in his native New York, were long on philosophy, languages and ethics, but relatively short on sciences.
"I loved it," said Dr. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health for more than 20 years.
In selecting a career, specifically medicine over science, Dr. Fauci said he was guided as much by the fact that he was a "people person" as by his aptitude for science.
"I particularly like the idea of discovery and problem solving, and that intellectual philosophy that goes along with science," he said.
Dr. Fauci is now a science administrator and lab director, as well as a policy adviser to the highest echelons of the U.S. government on such topics as AIDS, bioterrorism defense, and flu. If the much-discussed bird flu becomes a global pandemic, he will be one of the top advisers to the president. However he continues to see patients in the institute's clinic twice a week, a commitment that is all but unheard of among directors of the NIH institutes.
"Every institute director says they do some [patient care]," said Samuel Broder, former director of the National Cancer Institute, "but it's ceremonial." He said Dr. Fauci was the only institute director who still dons a white coat and treats patients on a regular basis.
"My fundamental identity is as a physician," Dr. Fauci said. "I cannot not see patients." His continued involvement with patients also makes him a better medical administrator, he said, and keeps him in touch with reality.
But his demanding schedule leaves him little time for seeing patients. As institute director, Dr. Fauci must oversee and advocate for research on a very broad spectrum of health issues. A typical week will find him talking to Tim Russert on "Meet the Press," for example, or speaking to National Public Radio's "Talk of the Nation" on its "Science Friday" show.
Perhaps because of his background in the humanities, Dr. Fauci is regarded as a good communicator by his colleagues and friends. They say he is exceptionally good at explaining complex ideas-like the differences between bird flu and seasonal flu, for example, or the need for long term preparedness for cyclical epidemics of influenza-in terms that are easy to understand.
Charles A. Dinarello, who worked with Fauci at the institute and is now a professor of medicine at the University of Colorado, calls him "a layman's spokesman." Whether he is speaking about HIV or pandemic flu, said Dr. Dinarello, Dr. Fauci is able to talk at the public's level, offering "knowledge without fear."
Dr. Broder echoed Dr. Dinarello's praise, noting that Dr. Fauci does not talk down to the public, and that people sense they can trust him.
As the institute's director, Dr. Fauci oversees many projects, but his own lab work is focused on AIDS. He has been an AIDS researcher since the disease was nothing more than a puzzling group of symptoms showing up in gay men from major U.S. cities.
In 1981, Dr. Fauci was researching the immune system at the institute, studying autoimmune diseases like lupus and vasculitis. In June of that year he read about the first few cases of what would be called HIV in a report put out by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. By July, it was clear there were enough cases that the disease was not a fluke.
"That was the turning point of my career, if not my life," said Dr. Fauci. He stopped his former research, to the dismay of many of his colleagues, and his lab began to focus solely on HIV.
It continues to be the focus of his lab work to this day. For the past 21 years since the virus HIV was discovered, Dr. Fauci has been studying the mechanisms by which the body destroys the immune system, hoping to find a way to stop it.
Dr. Fauci called finding a vaccine for HIV "one of the most difficult scientific problems." He explained that the best vaccine is a small dose of the infection itself which the body then fights off and "remembers," storing antibodies that will make it resistant the next time it meets that virus. That idea of a vaccine assumes that a majority of people can spontaneously recover from the disease in question. No one has ever spontaneously recovered from HIV.
Dr. Fauci said that is why his lab is working to understand what makes the body incapable of fighting HIV. Until that is found, there will be no vaccine.
The frenetic pace that Dr. Fauci's work requires has its trade-offs. "I don't sleep very much," he said. He works "outlandish hours," he said, coming in to work at 6:30 a.m. and often working until 10 or 11 p.m. six days a week.
When his three teen-aged daughters got old enough, the family made it a point to start eating together at 9:30 every night, a practice Dr. Fauci described as "not particularly healthy," but which allowed him to finally have a nightly dinner with his family. Lunch can be a tiny carton of Ben and Jerry's "Cherry Garcia" ice cream between meetings.
"We've kind of gotten used to it over the years," said Dr. Fauci's wife Christine Brady, a medical ethicist at NIH. She works full-time as well, and the family had a live-in babysitter for many years, she said.
Drs. Fauci and Brady met when a patient of Dr. Fauci's needed a Brazilian Portuguese translator and Dr. Brady who had spent time working in Brazil, spoke the language. A few weeks later Dr. Brady was walking down the hall and Dr. Fauci asked her to see him in his office before she left for the day. She thought it was about the patient. Instead, he asked her out to dinner.
Dr. Fauci is generally admired by his colleagues as someone who cares deeply about his work and the people it effects, but there was a controversy in 2002 concerning the ethics of some research the institute was involved in.
This centered on nevirapine, a drug administered to women with HIV in Africa to prevent them from passing the disease to their infants. A doctor inside the institute, Jonathan Fishbein, contended that research done on the drug in Africa was so flawed that health officials had to take blood samples from patients to determine whether they had been administered the drug. He charged that top officials, including Dr. Fauci, had information about side affects from the drug that was not reported to the Food and Drug Administration and the White House in a timely manner.
A panel from the National Academies' Institute of Medicine, a non-profit organization that advises the nation on health matters, examined these claims this year, and determined that while there were flaws, they did not lessen the effectiveness of the drug in stopping the spread of AIDS in Africa. "They agree with what we originally said," Dr. Fauci said.
Dr. Fishbein, who was terminated, said he could not comment because of a pending law suit.
Despite this controversy, Dr. Fauci is regarded by many of those who work with him as a dedicated scientist and humanitarian. Clifford Lane, acting deputy director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said of his boss, with whom he has worked since 1979, "As a scientist, Dr. Fauci is motivated to discover new things, as a physician.to improve the health of his patients, and as an institute director, he is strongly motivated to make new developments in medicine."
Sidebar
"There's a constant, metaphorical battle between microbes and human beings," said Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, "And every once in a while you get a potential for real catastrophe, like pandemic flu."
Flu, Dr. Fauci said, is totally unpredictable. History can provide a guide, but no guarantees. Every year the world population is exposed to what he calls "seasonal flu," which changes slightly each year, a process known as "drifting." Since 1968, the seasonal flu going around has been H3N2.
To keep up with drifting, Dr. Fauci said, vaccines change slightly year to year.
But ordinarily the changes in the virus are small enough that past years' exposure offers people some protection, and there is no major public health risk. Even so, Dr. Fauci, 36,000 people are killed each year, just by seasonal flu.
A pandemic occurs when "a brand new virus, to which we've never been exposed, attacks the human race," said Dr. Fauci. This has happened three times in the last century. In 1918 there was a catastrophic pandemic, which caused 50 million deaths worldwide, half a million to 700,000 in the United States. It was the worst pandemic mankind had ever experienced, including the Black Plague, he said.
The years 1957 and 1968 saw pandemic flu as new strains of the virus emerged, but each was relatively mild compared with 1918.
The bird flu, which has killed more than 60 people in Southeast Asia and recently appeared in China and Indonesia, is a "potential candidate for pandemic flu," he said, because the human species has never been exposed to it. It is H5N1, a wholly different strain from seasonal flu. If it mutates to be spread efficiently from person to person, he said, it could be a threat.
The likelihood of a pandemic arising any one year, Dr. Fauci said, is very small, but the likelihood of it happening sometime is virtually inevitable.
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Bhopal Still Poisonous 20 Years Later
WASHINGTON, Dec 1 - Citizens of Bhopal, India awoke late in the evening of December 3, 20 years ago, with burning eyes, noses and mouths. Poison gas had leaked from a factory, a catastrophe that killed more than 3,500 within hours and thousands more in the intervening years. It was the worst chemical disaster in history.
And today, several activist groups said Wednesday, it continues to fester.
Amnesty International, Greenpeace and several other organizations advocating on behalf of Bhopal survivors launched a new campaign Wednesday, timed to coincide with the disaster's 20 th anniversary, denouncing the pesticide plant as a continuing source of pollution.
"The abandoned plant is still leaking toxics to the drinking-water supplies of 16 residential communities, where 20,000 people live," Rajan Sharma, primary attorney representing Bhopal survivors, told reporters.
Based in New York, Sharma's legal team is in the midst of a battle to bring liability suits against Dow Chemical in U.S. and Indian courts, charging the company is responsible for the plant's current leaks.
Dow Chemical, in a statement posted on its Web site, denied having any current responsibility over the Bhopal site, a location it transferred to the state of Madhya Pradesh in 1998.
"All the claims arising out of the release were settled 15 years ago . with the approval of the Supreme Court of India," the statement said. In 1991, that court forced the company to pay an average of $500 each to the 570,000 people affected by the leak.
Bhopal survivors and officials from Amnesty International, Greenpeace and other groups described the compensation as insufficient and said Wednesday they were not willing to let the tragedy or its victims be forgotten.
Amnesty International, in a report called "Clouds of Injustice," asserted that neither the company nor the Indian state has cleaned up the "the mess" 20 years later. The report also asked the government of India "to secure justice for the victims."
More than 150,000 people are still suffering from illnesses stemming from the leak, the advocates said. "We demand medical care and economic and social support for them," said Rachna Dingra of the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal.
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Youth Turnout Could Be High This Election
By Paola Singer
WASHINGTON, Oct. 14 - Their activism may not match the intensity of their 1960's counterparts, but college students in 2004 are shedding the political apathy that has characterized them for many years.
A look at young people's political engagement, particularly in this year's presidential battleground states, indicates their turnout at the polls could be one the highest in decades and could be a factor in the race's outcome.
Sixty percent of Americans 18-29 have registered to vote in 2004, and of those, 85 percent say they plan to go to the polls in November, according to a September poll by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. If they do vote, it would represent a spike in political participation among youths, which has been on the decline since 1972, the first presidential election after the voting age was lowered to 18. Only in the 1992 election - much to the credit of independent candidate Ross Perot - did youth participation not decline.
This year, Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan have the largest number of eligible young voters.
"Coming into college I was very apathetic about politics. I really didn't know where I stood," said Tarah Rogowski, a senior at the University of Miami. But after attending a few school-sponsored political events "just to get more information," her attitude started to change.
Today she is the public relations coordinator for the university's Council for Democracy, a non-partisan student organization that began its get-out-the-vote efforts two years ago. Among several initiatives, including debate-watch parties called "pitchers and politics," they are selling T-shirts -which Rogowski designed - that read "voters are sexy." Those who wear the shirt on Election Day will have the chance to win gift certificates from Starbucks and other goodies.
It seems her efforts, and those of other political groups at the university, are paying off. "If you go around campus most people have buttons and stickers," she said.
"Those 8,000 votes could really make a difference on the way this election goes," she said about the student body at Miami. "We have a very loud voice."
In spite of the general perception that people of college age tend to be liberals, no party dominates the youth vote, making it hard to predict how it will tilt the electorate. A September poll conducted by CIRCLE (Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement) and MTV found that 46 percent of registered voters aged 18 to 29 favored Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry, while 40 percent supported President Bush. But according to a simultaneous Pew Research Center poll, 48 percent of voters in the same age group supported Bush, and 42 percent favored Kerry.
"Young people represent the largest independent demographic in the nation," said Adam Alexander, spokesman for the New Voters Project, one of about a dozen non-partisan independent organizations that work to encourage young people to vote.
"The candidate who wins will be the candidate who has communicated more effectively with young voters," Alexander said.
The issues that concern young voters the most are jobs and the economy, national security and the war in Iraq, according to those who pay attention to the youth vote..
"Young people are really following the debates to make up their minds," Alexander said. "That indicates they are looking for substance." He said 25 percent of young voters are undecided about their vote, compared to 8 percent of those over 65.
As Nov. 2 nears, campus organizations are working to boost turnout at the polls. "We are planning some big things for the lead-up to the election," said Matt Scafidi, a 22-year-old University of Pennsylvania student working for the Rock the Vote campaign.
Scafidi mentioned a mock presidential debate with representatives from both parties in the coming days, makeshift ballots in all college houses "for those who have never seen a ballot box," and outdoor Election Day events that will include free food.
"It's really important to let young voters know about the identification requirements and where the polling places are," he said.
The newfound political appetite of students still has to face the Election Day test. At Penn there is one polling site, at the east end of the seven-block campus. This has set off a debate between the school's Democrats and Republicans, who initially started working together to obtain additional polling sites by petitioning the city election commissioner. Now the Penn Democrats are alone in their quest, with the Republicans alleging more polling sites could cause confusion and make way for voter fraud.
Carol Defries, executive director of the university's office of government, community and public affairs, said the university decided to cease supporting students in their petition for fear of appearing partisan.
"Voting in the United States in 2004 is still subject to a dizzying hodgepodge of local and state regulation that can be difficult to navigate, especially for the first time," wrote Jane Eisner, a Philadelphia Inquirer columnist and youth vote pundit, recently.
A June poll about Election Day laws by CIRCLE found that states that have extended polling hours and that mail voter information saw higher voter turnout rates among the young in recent elections.
In spite of possible overcrowding at the University of Pennsylvania polling place, campaigners expect registered students to vote. "Registration has not been a tough sell at all," said Rich Eisenberg, head of Penn Democrats. "Students are well motivated this semester."
Both the Kerry and Bush campaigns are seizing on the opportunity to attract young voters, on and off campus. Adam Alexander of the New Voters Project said the College Republican National Committee raised $7 million and the Democratic Party recently spent $8 million on ads targeted at young voters.
"Politicians traditionally removed young voters from their lists," Alexander said. "This turned into a self-fulfilling prophecy." But in this election, he said, "it is impossible for any young American to say that their vote doesn't count."
The number of young people in the nation has grown in recent years, reaching more than 40 million, and is expected to continue to do so.
"I cannot understand when I hear someone say that they are not interested in politics, " Scafidi said. "If you care about any issue then you have an interest in politics."
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Members of Congress Push for Stronger Legislation in Using DNA to Catch Rapists
WASHINGTON—Lawmakers introduced legislation Tuesday in the House designed to prosecute rapists more effectively by improving the use of DNA evidence collection.
The Debbie Smith Act, authored by Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), would provide over $600 million to eliminate the substantial backlog of DNA evidence collected in sexual assault cases but not tested or entered into the national database. Its companion bill, the DNA Sexual Assault Justice Act of 2003, authored by Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.), was introduced in January. Speaking at a meeting, lawmakers stressed that it is a lack of resources, not technology or ability, that has caused the backlog.
The money would be spent over the next five years to upgrade DNA analysis, train law enforcement officials and first responders in handling forensic evidence and treating sexual assault victims, and update the national DNA database.
"Despite past successes and the future potential of DNA, hundreds of thousands of rape kits sit in storage because law enforcement officials lack the funds or resources to test them," Biden said in a statement. The rape kits, which contain collected DNA evidence, are stored away, Biden said, while victims of sexual assault wait for justice, sometimes long past the statute of limitations, which for most states is seven years.
"Each of these kits represents a woman who was viciously attacked, and who may live in fear because her attacker might still be free," he continued. "We have the technology and the power to change all of that. We have an opportunity and an obligation to do a much better job of using DNA evidence to bring criminals to justice."
Biden said that DNA testing yields 99.9 percent accuracy, and that with the latest technology, only a drop of blood the size of a pinhead is needed for testing. "But it is useless," he cautioned, "if there is no money to test the evidence [that is collected]."
According to statistics from the U.S. Department of Justice, a sexual assault occurs in the United States approximately every 82 seconds. The Federal Bureau of Investigation's most recent statistics show 458 reported forcible rapes in New Hampshire for 2001, according to the FBI website.
Maloney first introduced the legislation last year, after rape survivor Debbie Smith of Williamsburg, Va., testified at a Government Reform Committee hearing on DNA evidence. Smith's attacker was identified through such evidence.
"DNA is fresher than a fingerprint," Maloney said in a statement, reiterating the method's importance. "It does not forget and it can't be intimidated."
The legislation also has received considerable media support from the cable network Lifetime Television. According to executive vice president Meredith Wagner, nearly 80,000 people have signed Lifetime's on-line petition drive in support of the bills.
The legislative push coincides this week with End Violence Against Women Week.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) is a co-sponsor of the legislation.
"This is a win-win issue," Sen. Hilary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), another of the bill's co-sponsors, said at the hearing. "Once people understand what's at stake, there is simply no more argument."
Published in Foster's Daily Democrat, in New Hampshire.
Mental Health Facilities “Overwhelmed” By Sept. 11 Aftermath
By Sarah Sparks
WASHINGTON - In the weeks following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, America turned out overwhelmingly to help the wounded, with millions of dollars in donations for aid and medical supplies and lines out the doors at blood banks around the country. But now lawmakers and health experts are debating how caregivers best can treat the mental scars that could last months or years after physical wounds have healed.
"Mental illnesses suffered in the wake of tragedies like the assault on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon are a silent scourge," said Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., during a hearing yesterday on the psychological trauma of the attacks.
"Like the war on terrorism itself, the struggle against the psychological trauma inflicted by terror cannot be won without substantial resources and a substantial national commitment," Kennedy said at the hearing of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions which he chairs.
The Pew Research Center's post-attack survey of 1,200 Americans found that 71 percent said they have felt depressed since the attacks; nearly half have had difficulty concentrating; a third had trouble sleeping.
Unfortunately, the people most at risk may be those who have given the most: the rescue workers and physicians.
Spencer Eth, vice chairman of psychiatry at St. Vincent Catholic Medical Center, the trauma hospital closest to ground zero in New York, said the staff has been strained to breaking with more than 7,000 victims needing care. "I can attest that my many hospital colleagues are more anguished now than at any previous time in their careers," Eth said.
Kerry Kelly, director of medical services for the New York City Fire Department, was at the World Trade Center, helping firemen, when the towers collapsed. "It was like a battlefield, with bodies and debris raining from the sky," Kelly said.
In New York, 60 fire companies have lost one or more members; of the 343 members missing or confirmed dead, 75 have close relatives still in active duty. "We have retired officers digging for their sons, two brothers uniting in grief to search for a third sibling," Kelly said. This additional shock makes many rescue workers doubly at risk for trauma-related disorders.
Kennedy agreed, citing statistics from police and rescue organizations on hand at the crash site of Pan Am Flight 103 in Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988. A quarter of the Lockerbie rescue workers who handled the bodies of victims took early retirement within 18 months, Kennedy said; since the crash, 78 rescuers have committed suicide.
The mental health professionals testifying urged Congress to quickly reinforce the country's strained support network. "Just as emergency rooms were quickly overrun with the wounded and dying in the first hours after this disaster, existing mental health infrastructures may be overwhelmed in the coming months," said Carol North, psychiatrist and disaster studies expert the Washington University School of medicine in St. Louis, Mo.
Kennedy vowed the committee would work to bring more aid to mental health programs. "One hundred families in my own state of Massachusetts were personally affected," Kennedy said. "Our goal is to do all we can to help those affected by the attacks ... and to be fully prepared for any future disasters."
Kennedy and Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., are two of 61 Senate co-sponsors for the Mental Health Equitable Treatment Act, set to go to the Senate floor Monday. The bill, proposed by Sens. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., and Pete Domenici, R-N.M., would require group health plans that offer mental health coverage to treat those benefits the same as medical and surgical benefits - preventing insurance companies from imposing treatment limits only on mental health care, for example.
"The role of private insurance is especially critical," Kennedy said. "There must be no skimping or rationing of needed care for victims of this assault on America."
North advised Congress to take a two-pronged approach. First, for those who suffered mild trauma - from watching the attacks on television, for example - community leaders should offer crisis counseling and public forums for people to share their grief, anger and fear. For those highly traumatized - such as survivors, rescue workers and families of victims - doctors must quickly identify patients developing depression, post-traumatic stress syndrome or other disorders and set up a long-term treatment plan.
"People so traumatized by the disaster that they are emotionally numbed and can cope only by avoiding all reminders of it are at particularly high risk," North said.
