Untrained Disaster Responders Are More Prone to Suicide Years After World Trade Center Attack
Rutgers University-New BrunswickConstruction workers, clean-up staff and other untrained nontraditional emergency employees who assisted in recovery efforts at the World Trade Center in New York following the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, are more than five times as likely than traditional first responders to have considered suicide, according to a Rutgers study. Published in the Journal of Affective Disorders, the study is believed to be the first to examine the prevalence and connection of thoughts of suicide in two occupational groups that participated in rescue, recovery and clean-up efforts following the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center.