We asked 100 disaster restoration workers primarily based in Florida and Louisiana if they had been exposed to asbestos, lead and mold while working to rebuild after natural disasters. Here’s what they shared with us:

A total of 100 disaster restoration workers participated in our questionnaire. The gender distribution among these workers was significantly skewed, with 89 identifying as male and 11 (11%) identifying as female.

The workers who participated in our questionnaire spanned a wide range of demographics. The majority of these workers fell into the 30-39 (28%) and 40-49 (31%) age groups, indicating a significant portion were of working age.

The 50-59 age group represented 20% of these workers, while the 20-29 and 60-69 age groups accounted for 8% and 12%, respectively. Only one worker (1%) was in the 70-79 age group.

This data suggests that the workers who participated in our questionnaire were predominantly male, with a substantial representation of individuals between the ages of 30 and 49.

72 of the 100 workers said they have been exposed to mold.

52 said they have been exposed to asbestos.

48 said they have been exposed to lead.

Combined, 80 workers said they had been exposed to at least one toxin while doing disaster restoration work.

Of 80 workers who reported being exposed to asbestos, lead or mold on the job, just 15 said they had received training in how to handle any of those toxic substances.

Of those same 80 workers, 60 said their employer had not provided them with personal protective equipment.

ABOUT THIS QUESTIONNAIRE

Columbia Journalism Investigations and The Center for Public Integrity designed our questionnaire for disaster restoration workers with guidance and vetting from Jonathan Rosen, industrial hygiene consultant at AJ Rosen and Associates; Diego Palaguachi, safety and health specialist at New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health; Abiodun Oluyomi, assistant professor at Baylor College of Medicine; and Susan Arnold, associate professor of environmental health sciences at University of Minnesota School of Public Health.

No federal or state data exists on how many disaster restoration workers get sick while cleaning up after hurricanes, floods and wildfires each year. Nor does any U.S. government body or advocacy organization track these workers’ exposures to ubiquitous toxins in post-disaster zones. While some academic and public-interest research may shed light on health concerns among the disaster restoration workforce, our questionnaire was meant to measure how exposure of toxins during the cleanup and demolition phase after a natural disaster is affecting this population and quantify workers’ employment experiences and health symptoms. It is not a formal, randomized survey. Respondents participated voluntarily and without compensation. Many undocumented workers declined to participate out of fear of being deported. For that reason, our results may not represent the general experience of disaster restoration workers but they provide a stark image of what’s happening on the ground after natural disasters.

We spent eight months conducting phone and in-person interviews based on the questionnaire. We changed some terms in the Spanish questionnaire to ensure migrants from Central America understood what we were asking.

In all, 100 disaster restoration workers responded from some of the nation’s most hurricane-impacted states, including Florida, Louisiana, New York and Texas. Our questions focused on hurricanes and other climate-driven disasters — floods and wildfires — since 2005, when Hurricane Katrina ushered in an era of climate devastation. We asked about the workers’ disaster cleanup jobs, workplace conditions and health symptoms, questions modeled on past surveys of this workforce.

Data source: 2023 Restoration Worker Questionnaire by CJI and Public Integrity

Byline: María Inés Zamudio, Janelle Retka, Jiahui Huang, Samantha McCabe and José Luis Castillo | Columbia Journalism Investigations | The Center for Public Integrity | La Esquina TX

Visualization: Jovi Zhaozhou Dai / The Center for Public Integrity