Self-reported skin rash or irritation symptoms among World Trade Center Health Registry participants.

Abstract

We described self-reported skin rash 2 to 3 and 5 to 6 years after 9/11 and examined its association with exposures to 9/11 dust/debris. We analyzed a longitudinal study of New York City World Trade Center Health Registry participants who resided or worked in Lower Manhattan or worked in rescue/recovery in two surveys (W1 and W2). Among 42,025 participants, 12% reported post-9/11 skin rash at W1, 6% both times, 16% at W2. Among participants without posttraumatic stress disorder or psychological distress, W1 self-reported post-9/11 skin rash was associated with intense dust cloud exposure (adjusted odds ratio [OR] = 1.6; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.3 to 1.9), home/workplace damage (adjusted OR = 1.8; 95% CI, 1.4 to 2.3), and working more than 90 days (adjusted OR = 1.7; 95% CI, 1.3 to 2.2) or 31 to 90 days (adjusted OR = 1.6; 95% CI, 1.3 to 2.1) at the World Trade Center site. Post-9/11 skin rash may be related to acute and long-term exposure to dust, though subjectivity of skin symptoms may bias findings.