Scientists at Penn State's College of Medicine and Milton S. Hershey Medical Center are part of a team researching inhaled toxins from the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in New York.

Two weeks after the disaster, about 1,800 police officers working at or near Ground Zero were health-screened, said research team leader Dr. Rebecca Bascom, a professor of medicine at Hershey.

"There was such a shift for police officers after Sept. 11," Bascom said. "Since police officers don't usually have inhalation exposures, they are not provided with gas masks. Our research tells us about health risks and how to remain healthy and safe in future disasters."

The first part of the team's research recently was published, showing stress, exhaustion, breathing problems and early signs of heart disease were among the most common effects of the inhaled toxins.

-- by Tia Bochnakova