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Scott Knowles is a professor at Drexel University and also a faculty research fellow of the Disaster Research Center at the University of Delaware. His work focuses on risk and disaster, with particular interests in modern cities, technology, and public policy. The Disaster Experts: Mastering Risk in Modern America (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011) is his most recent publication cited in his Drexel bio.

This article does not address emergency response. The main focus of this article is the effect of social policy change on public/immigration health.

The article addresses the inequities in public health by showing how millions of tons of dust from concrete and asbestos were kicked up into the air after the tower collapses of 9/11 and was then determined to be safe per the EPA. A lawsuit was filed against the EPA on behalf of schoolchildren required to attend school in buildings near the site of the collapse and forced to breathe in so-called safe air. Emergency response is not directly addressed however plans of mandating that the EPA pay for the cleanup process are mentioned.

1. "Having the capacity to continue functioning after a traumatic event is common and characteristic of normal coping and adaptation"
2. "The first challenge lies in identifying the correct sampling frame, which generally comprises all persons affected by the disaster. The sampling frame may be even more difficult to identify in natural disasters, when the geographic area of impact is larger and less defined."
3. "These studies can help us understand what factors are associated with different courses of mental illness, which can help us identify the most vulnerable populations and inform tailored interventions"

The hardest thing that they have to deal with is trying to convince uneducated legistalors on topics that can affect millions of lives. The material that seems simple to them must be conveyed in a mundane matter.