• Worker Health Protection Program (WHPP)

      (WHPP) is funded by the Department of Energy (DOE) as part of the DOE Former Worker Medical Surveillance Program (FWP). The FWP was created by a Congressional mandate in the Defense Authorization Act of 1993, which directed the DOE to fund voluntary medical screening to workers of DOE's nuclear defense facilities.

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    Credit: Jonah Markowitz

  • WHPP Early Lung Cancer Detection Program (ELCD)

      Since 2000, the WHPP Early Lung Cancer Detection (ELCD) Program has provided low-dose chest CT scans to U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) workers, with the primary purpose of detecting lung cancers early. The WHPP ELCD Program serves DOE workers from nine sites in the DOE complex.

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  • New York City Community Air Survey (NYCCAS)

      The NYCCAS program monitors pollutants that cause health problems such as fine particles, nitrogen oxides, elemental carbon (a marker for diesel exhaust particles), sulfur dioxide and ozone. NYCCAS air pollution measurements are taken at 100 locations throughout New York City in each season.

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  • Improving the Health of Immigrant Working Populations in New York City

      The Barry Commoner Center for Health and the Environment of Queens College (QC) has established an ongoing collaboration with Make the Road New York (MRNY), a local multi-service community organization serving Latino immigrants with offices in Jackson Heights (Queens), Bushwick (Brooklyn), Staten Island and Long Island.

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  • WTC - Asthma & WTC - Heart

      Asthma is one of the most common health problems among rescue and recovery workers from the World Trade Center (WTC) collapse in 2001. The goals of the study are to examine what happens to patients with WTC asthma.

      The WTC-Heart study is a cohort study of 6,481 WTC responders designed to estimate the risk of cardiovascular disease within this population.

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About Barry Commoner (1917-2012)

News

Worker Health Protection Program Celebrates 25 years of Lung Cancer Screening (2000-2025)

Since 2000, the Worker Health Protection Program (WHPP) Early Lung Cancer Detection Program (ELCD) has provided low-dose chest CT scans to at risk U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) workers, mostly retired, for the purpose of detecting lung cancers at an early treatable stage. This program has expanded over the past 25 years and now serves DOE workers at 15 different DOE sites in 8 states (see map below), including flagship DOE sites in Oak Ridge TN (Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Y-12, and K-25), New Mexico (Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories), and Nevada (National Security Site, formerly the Nevada Test Site). This work is supported by the Department of Energy.

Many DOE workers are at elevated risk of lung cancer due to their prior work with and exposure to occupational lung carcinogens at DOE facilities. These exposures include asbestos, beryllium, radiation, nickel, chromium, welding, diesel exhaust, silica and possibly others. Exposure to these agents during the latter part of the 20th century has led to increased risk for many workers at present as they retire and age into the 70’s and beyond.

WHPP eligibility criteria for lung cancer screening include age ( ≥50 to 80+ years); smoking, ( ≥10 pack-year smoking history) and work at DOE ( ≥2 years of DOE work in operations, maintenance or engineering/laboratory). In addition workers with asbestos-related lung scarring or a positive beryllium blood test (BeLPT) are eligible for screening.

ELCD CT Scanner in Oak Ridge TN, 2025

To date, WHPP has screened over 14,000 DOE workers and detected > 240 lung cancers. Most importantly, 72% of the detected lung cancers have been deleted at early stages, when surgical cure is most likely. We continue to offer annual low dose chest CT scans for eligibility, thanks to the continues support of the U.S. Department of Energy.

Faculty Publications

  3. Khatlani K, Markowitz S, Griffon M, Manowitz A, Stuckey J, Guo Y, Miller A, Miller JA, van Gerwen M. Risk factors of incidental thyroid abnormalities identified on low-dose chest CT scans in Department of Energy workers. J Occup Environ Med. 2025 Sep 15. doi: 10.1097/JOM.0000000000003547.

  4. Baron S, Cuervo I, Wilets I, Cruz J, Gonzalez A, Flores D, Harari H. A Qualitative Study of the Ethics of Community Scientists' Role in Environmental Health Research from the Perspective of Community Scientists and Institutional Review Board Staff.Environ Health Perspect. 2025 May;133(5):57019. doi: 10.1289/EHP15824. Epub 2025 May 23. PMID: 40239124

  5. Morabia A., Ten Years at the Helm: Reflections From the AJPH Editor-in-Chief. Am J Public Health. 2025 Jul;115(7):975-978. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2025.308173. PMID: 40499119

  7. Morabia A., Ensuring Quality in Scientific Publication Through Inclusivity and Transparency. Am J Public Health. 2025 Jul;115(7):966-967. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2025.308174. PMID: 40499118

  9. Morabia A., AJPH and the Threat of Political Interference in Scientific Publishing. Am J Public Health. 2025 May;115(5):626-627. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2025.308100. Epub 2025 Mar 13. PMID: 40080743

  11. Morabia A., The State of the Public Health Union 2025. Am J Public Health. 2025 Apr;115(4):446-447. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2025.308048. PMID: 40073354

  13. Markowitz S, Ringen K, Dement JM, Straif K, Christine Oliver L, Algranti E, Nowak D, Ehrlich R, McDiarmid MA, Miller A; Collegium Ramazzini. Occupational lung cancer screening: A Collegium Ramazzini statement. Am J Ind Med. 2024 Apr;67(4):289-303. doi: 10.1002/ajim.23572.

  14. Wisnivesky JP, Agrawal N, Ankam J, Gonzalez A, Federman A, Markowitz SB, Birmingham JM, Busse PJ. Inflammatory markers in world trade center workers with asthma: Associations with post-traumatic stress disorder PLoS One. 2024;19(2):e0297616.

  16. O'Campo P, Gunn V, Perri M, Buhariwala P, Rasoulain E, Daneshvardfard M, Ma RW, Lewchuck W, Baron S, Bodin T, Muntaner C. Working Conditions, Worker Rights, and Managerial Domination During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Assessing Their Toll on Precariously Employed Workers and Family Well-Being. Int J Soc Determinants Health Health Serv. 2024 Jul;54(3):233-246. doi: 10.1177/27551938241253789.

  18. Laskaris Z, O'Neill MS, Batterman SA, Mukherjee B, Fobil JN, Robins TG. Cross-shift changes in pulmonary function and occupational exposure to particulate matter among e-waste workers in Ghana. J Urban Health. 2024 Jun;101(3):439-450. doi: 10.1007/s11524-024-00873-9. PMID: 38683420

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