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The article's bibliography is very long and thorough, as well as extensive. There are hundreds of citations of other papers and articles on the topic, as well as  assessments and memorandums from numerous governmental agencies such as FEMA, Homeland Security and Federation of America. There are also new outlet citations and policy citations. This all goes to show that the research that went into this article is very heavy and intense, which provides it with much detail and allows for it to be an excellent source of information and recollection of the effects Katrina has had and still has on those affected. 

The school parent was interesting - explaining that the public image of resiliance was paid for by the lungs of the children being sent back into the uncleaned schools.

The person in charge of sending out the EPA press releases (and heavily editing them) had previously fought against the EPA for large companies.

The doctors eventually noticed the issues and tried to get more of the first responders evaluated and treated.

The first responders that risked their lives saving others now can't get fair treatment or benefits to help recover. They want to work but can't.

They needed to testify that they were on the scene in front of a judge to get benefits.

Google Scholar shows that this article has been cited in more than 40 different works. All have to do with global health due and epidimology. Some of the papers it has been cited in include:

The geography of post-disaster mental health: spatial patterning of psychological vulnerability and resilience factors in New York City after Hurricane Sandy

Life course epidemiology of trauma and related psychopathology in civilian populations

Volunteerism and well-being in the context of the World Trade Center terrorist attacks

Harmful Workplace Experiences and Women's Occupational Well-Being A Meta-Analysis

"'Sometimes [the detainees] tell [the guards], 'we not locking in becuase its too hot,' Jackson says. Such refusal has often meant calling in the Emergency Services Unit, the jail version of a riot squad. REferred to as 'the turtles' by some detainees, the ESU is known to use extreme force when bringing people back to their cells"

It was partialy funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health.

Data for this report was collected from other sources and forms of documentation as early as the day of the event. Information and details such as population sizes, weather conditions that day, human population distribution and more were all information collected from that day of the event. Other forms of data collected, ranging over the time of the event occurring to the publication time, include factors such as the quality of the air, water, animals and living conditions surrounding the plant. Human radiation levels and infection were also gathered, radiation levels of crops and much, much more were all statistics and data collected over roughly twenty year timespan that this report covers. This is actually one of the main driving points of the report, listed in the title "twenty years of experience." It compiles 20 years of research and findings into one large report.

The bibliography shows that many of the resources were papers on mental health issues like PTSD, as well as mental health after specific disasters. From this information, the authors were likely able to find comparisions between mental health trends after disasters, and then how those compare to PTSD trends.

After the Fukushima disaster, thyroid examinations were performed on residents less than 18 years of age. The first three years post disaster are noted as the "Initial phase" and act as a control. Of those tested, 113 cases were suspected of or found to have thyroid malignancies, 99 of those underwent surgery. After this, the goal became to compare and observe prevalence of thyroid cancer in this initial screen program with historical controls based off if there was a nuclear disaster or not.

For this study, the observed/expected ratio was calculated for residents less than 20 years old. Observed prevalence of cancer was calculated using numbers found in the initial thyroid screening program mentioned above. Expected prevalence was then calculated by using a life-table method utilizing national estimates of thyroid cancer incidences before the disaster. The population of Fukushima was taken into account.  A 5 year cumulative risk of thyroid cancer incidences was calculated for the year of 2010.  This 5 year risk was then converted to a 1 year cumulative risk using a method called spline smoothing. Then the age-specific prevalence of thyroid cancer was estimated by multiplying the 0 year old population by the age specific risk in 2010. 

I have done research involving cancer rates and their correlation with power plants (in my case Indian Point.) Doing that research caused me to read hundreds of studies similar to this one where estimates are made using calculations based off cancer rates before the incident and then taking them and putting them into context of a post disaster area. I wouldn't quite say that this method is new or inventive but it follows similar methodology to other studies of this same caliber, yet there are aspects that make it more unique such as converting the 5 year to 1 year cumulative risk using a spline smoothing method. 

"Data from this study provide the opportunity for addressing not only problems of medical care and public health, but for reflecting on theoretical and methodological questions central to this book as well."

"As the interviews went on, it became evident that "fainting" is a cultural category often used to describe classical tonic--clonic seizures. However, the term is associated with a more general semantic domain that includes fainting occurring in times of acute distress or in the context of a life of suffering, and is less stigmatizing than the term "epilepsy."

"Narrative theory describes two aspects of plot: plot as the underlying structure of a story, and "emplotment'' as the activity of a reader or hearer of a story who engages imaginatively in making sense of the story. Both are relevant to the analysis of illness narratives."

This article has been cited in a few other publications, mostly regarding other aspects of Chernobyl and medicine.