The study aimed to do large scale studies on disasters relating to the exposure of a portion of the population to a toxic agent, in order to learn how to better study the long-term medical effects.
The article was published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, a well regarded journal dedicated to publishing reliable studies concerning ecological damage and effects, as well as the medical effects due to ecological factors of both natural and human creation.
The study aimed to discover new or more effective methods of studying long term effects of exposure to toxic agents. It describes the new insights including the effectiveness of simple studies, ensuring control groups, and methods to do research by using ecological aspects or involving the community in places where medical researchers are not entirely trusted.
As the disasters studied occurred many years ago and have been thoroughly studied previously this study did not present sufficiently new information to be disseminated through news reports. The study did however provide information of interest for future studies, and has been cited in other articles indicating it was used as reference in determining the effectiveness of research techniques.
The data presented could be used for medical professionals to better understand the cause of similar symptoms, or to treat patients involved in a similar incidents. The methods of research presented could be used by academics and researchers in further study.
The study does not directly address vulnerable populations, but rather focuses on including all relevant populations involved in a disaster including those reluctant to take surveys or be interviewed, or communities that are not often studies or may have had little to no exposure in order to maintain the proper control group.
The study was funded with assistance from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the Center of Economic Excellence, located in South Carolina, through a program for the Doris Meddin Levkoff Center for Medication Safety.
They have worked to improve the city of Newark in their resilience to server storms.
This article explains that there is still desvestation from Hurrican Sandy. Raw sweage seeped in the Passica River and the efforts to remove it still exist. New Jersey's infrasture is very vulnerable. The DEP developed a 230 million system to build flood walls and hopefully this will help in case of future storm.
The aftermaths of Sandy had created many vulnerabilites to the communities around the shores. There were about 840 million gallons of raw sewage scattered into the Passaic River; and since the sewerage system had struggled to get back to full operating hours and service, there were 4.4 billion gallons of partially treated sewage were released into New York Harbor. In addition, many infrastructure was severely damaged after the storm: houses, power substations, police headquarters, etc.