Health Care and Social Issues of Immigrant Rescue and Recovery Workers at the World Trade Center Site

Abstract

This article reviews the experience of a unique occupational group of World Trade Center (WTC) workers: immigrant workers. This group is comprised largely of men, laborers, who are first-generation immigrants. The majority of these workers are from Latin America (predominantly from Ecuador and Colombia) or from Eastern Europe (predominantly from Poland). Our data shows that the disease profile observed in these workers was what we have previously reported for WTC working population as a whole. Recent reports have begun to document the disproportionate burden of occupational hazards, injuries, and illnesses experienced by immigrant workers in the United States. The WTC experience of immigrants exemplified this burden but, additionally, highlighted that this burden is exacerbated by limitations in access to appropriate health care, disability and compensation benefits, and vocational rehabilitation services. A clinical program that was designed to address the complex medical and psychosocial needs of these workers in a comprehensive manner was successfully established. Full justice for these workers depends on larger societal changes.

Occupational Rhinosinusitis and Upper Airway Disease: The World Trade Center Experience

“…Together with the other temporally related physical and psychological comorbidities, and social dislocation, the WTC experience underscores the need for a comprehensive, integrated, and multidisciplinary approach to address the complex needs of disaster victims [22] and for ongoing monitoring efforts to ensure adequate follow-up and longlatency disease surveillance and detection.…”

“…In a related study of 168 WTC HETP patients, the prevalence of presumably WTC-related UAD did not seem to vary by occupation, whereas that of LAD and pulmonary functional abnormalities did [22]. The role of atopy as a risk factor for presumably WTC-related UAD and LAD was examined in a second related study.…”

Barriers to Return-to-Work for Linguistic Minorities in Ontario: An Analysis of Narratives from Appeal Decisions

“…She stated that she was being trained to be a receptionist but she denied that she could have worked as a receptionist because of her poor English and the pain that she has. (Worker's Testimony) 20 Workers sometimes asserted that they lacked the English skills to obtain or maintain jobs in their SEBs. Examples included the SEBs of cashier, customer service representative, parking lot attendant, dispatcher, construction supervisor, and security guard, to name but a few.…”

“…Specifically, linguistic minorities may have problems accessing vocational services and training [20], or may be discouraged by the need for both language and skills training [20,23]. At the same time, services and training may be inadequate.…”

“…Evidence from Canada and the United States indicates that injured linguistic minorities are more likely than their counterparts to file a workers' compensation claim, perhaps because they have more severe injuries, or they more often lack alternative sources of income replacement [10][11][12]. However, research suggests that those who file a claim have inferior experiences and outcomes [10,[13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22].…”