Storm Evacuees Found to Suffer Health Setbacks

[Rose Siding]

Families displaced by Hurricane Katrina are suffering from mental disorders and chronic conditions like asthma and from a lack of prescription medication and health insurance at rates that are much higher than average, a new study has found.

The study, conducted by the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University and the Children's Health Fund, is the first to examine the health issues of those living in housing provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Based on face-to-face interviews with more than 650 families living in trailers or hotels, it provides a grim portrait of the hurricane's effects on some of the poorest victims, showing gaps in the tattered safety net pieced together from government and private efforts.

Among the study's findings: 34 percent of displaced children suffer from conditions like asthma, anxiety and behavioral problems, compared with 25 percent of children in urban Louisiana before the storm. Fourteen percent of them went without prescribed medication at some point during the three months before the survey, which was conducted in February, compared with 2 percent before the hurricane.
....
Instead of being given a chance to recover, the study says, "Children and families who have been displaced by the hurricanes are being pushed further toward the edge."
....
The study's authors raise the prospect of irreversible damage if children miss out now on normal development fostered by stable schools and neighborhoods.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/18/us/nationalspecial/18health.html?hp&ex=1145332800&en=10f3a48e093c9b7c&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[uppityperson]

1. Obviousman strikes again! Good to see it official though.

Very good to see it official. Thanks for the link.

[nashville_brook]

2. toxic soil - Poison Politics in New Orleans

http://www.reconstructionwatch.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=113

Poison Politics in New Orleans

by SUE STURGIS
Reconstruction Watch
April 11, 2006

NEW ORLEANS -- More than seven months after Hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans, Louisiana regulators remain locked in battle with environmental advocates over what to do about elevated levels of toxic chemicals in sediment left behind in the city.

On one side, groups including the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Louisiana Environmental Action Network are sounding the alarm over the results of federal Environmental Protection Agency sampling data, which they say reveals levels of heavy metals and other toxins so high that children shouldn't return to the city.

"The EPA has not lifted a finger to clean up the toxic mess that threatens the health of returning residents," says Hillary Shelton of the NAACP, member of a coalition of civil rights and religious groups calling on federal authorities to take action. "This is a scandal of major proportions."

(more at link)

[intheflow]

3. Also happening for non-evacuees in the storm zone.

I'm surprisd there haven't been more studies done about the effects on the people who stayed behind. Maybe in time, though it's doubtful here in Mississippi. The state legislature just slashed the mental health care budget again, for example. :(

[Rose Siding]

4. kick- Govt's failure in NO will reach across the generations

snip>
"This circumstance is being widely misinterpreted as an acute crisis, somehow implying that it will be over in the near term, which is categorically wrong," Dr. Redlener said. "This is an acute crisis on top of a pre-existing condition. It's now a persistent crisis with an uncertain outcome, over an uncertain timetable."