Disasters Health complaints following an air disaster: a ‘‘second disaster’’

esearch into the medium and long term health consequences of disas-ter has mushroomed in recent years. The majority of this research has focused on direct ‘‘victims’’, that is, members of the general population who have been directly exposed to disaster. Emergency workers and other occupational groups have been less studied, possibly due to the assumption that adverse health effects will be minimal for them. The study by Huizink et al in this issue1 is therefore a particularly welcome addition to the disaster literature; the authors investi