First Responders Health Monitoring Amendment Sponsored by Sens. Voinovich and Clinton Included in Final Port Security Bill

First Responders Health Monitoring Amendment Sponsored by Sens. Voinovich and Clinton Included in Final Port Security Bill

Provides for health monitoring of individuals exposed to harmful substances as a result of terrorist attacks or natural disasters

Washington, DC - The Security and Accountability for Every Port Act passed the Senate last night by a vote of 98 to 0. The bill includes an amendment sponsored by U.S. Senators George V. Voinovich (R-OH) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), S. 1741, the Disaster Area Health and Environment Monitoring Act of 2005, which is focused on health monitoring for our nation's first responders.

The amendment authorizes the president, if he determines that substances of concern have been released in a federally declared disaster area, to establish a program in a federal partnership with appropriate medical institutions for the protection, assessment, monitoring and study of the health and safety of individuals. The amendment also directs federal agencies to enter into a contract with the National Academy of Sciences to study and report on disaster area health protection and monitoring.

"This issue first came to my attention during a series of hearings in 2002, when my colleagues and I learned of the severe health problems facing the thousands of workers and volunteers who heroically responded to the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center," Sen. Voinovich said. "It is extremely important that we take care of these individuals who bravely gave of themselves to help those in need. Whether people will volunteer to be first responders in the future depends on how the first responders of 9/11 and other disasters are treated. We must take care of our heroes."

"September 11 showed us that we need a national program to fully track -- and thus enable us to treat -- the health effects of disasters. Responders and volunteers who came to New York from all over the country and people who lived and worked near Ground Zero but have since moved to other parts of the country are experiencing health effects their local health providers may not connect to 9/11. For the sake of those suffering in the aftermath of 9/11 and those who will answer the call to help in the wake of future tragedies, I am proud the Senate has approved what will become a critical part of our public health preparedness," Sen. Clinton said.

Many of the Ground Zero first responders have suffered from a variety of long-term respiratory illnesses, including asthma, mental illness and pneumonia. This group includes Ohio Task Force One, one of 28 federal Urban Search and Rescue teams deployed to New York City following the attacks. Currently, the Federal Emergency Management Agency does not hold the authority to conduct the necessary long-term monitoring of health impacts following environmental exposures in the wake of a disaster.

A five-year study conducted by Mount Sinai Medical Center of Ground Zero first responders confirmed suspicions about the effects of having worked at the World Trade Center (WTC) site. According to the findings, almost 70 percent of WTC responders had a new or substantially worsened respiratory symptom following their work at the WTC. Among the responders who were asymptomatic before 9/11, 61 percent developed respiratory symptoms while working at the WTC.

The Senate passed this bill by Unanimous Consent in the 108th Congress, but it failed to move through the House. The bill will now go to conference where a House-Senate Conference Committee will resolve the differences between the two versions of the bill.

http://clinton.senate.gov/news/statements/details.cfm?id=263094&&