Sep 09 2008
World Trade Center Rescue Dogs Doing O.K.
This Thursday marks seven years since 9/11.
By now, the dust has long settled, the area that once housed the Twin Towers has been transformed, and those who sifted through the rubble have moved on.
While there’s no doubt that the emotional effects of the rescue work still linger, for some of the rescuers, physical issues are also present.
But not so for the four-footed search dogs, who possess no long term side effects from their dangerous, heroic work.
The New York City Police Department dogs who were deployed to the site after the attack were studied for five years and currently show no long term health effects, this according to the July issue of the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association.
Although many human rescuers continue to suffer from increased rates of illness and severity of symptoms related to respiratory tract disease, the 27 dogs observed in the study do not have the same issues.
The dogs were exposed to the same smoke, dust and toxins as their human counterparts, but researchers think the difference lies in the lung defense mechanisms in the dogs.
I guess that’s the silver lining.
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