Terrorism - Terrorism: Tracking The Deaths

Shortly after the attacks of September 11, the National Center for Health Statistics designated terrorism as a new classification of death.

Categories for terrorism are not included under the two major codes used to track mortality in the United States: the World Health Organization's International Classification of Diseases and the United States Clinical Modification of the ICD. Without these new codes, it would be difficult to identify and track deaths by terrorism.

Shortly after the September attacks, the victims were categorized as homicides and the terrorists as suicides. However, a short time later the CDC began receiving requests from medical examiners and state vital statistics offices requesting a uniform method of categorizing deaths and injuries from the tragedy. The CDC put together a coding system with two dozen subcategories of death by terrorist activity. Their blueprint was this definition of a terrorism death: "Injuries resulting from the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a Government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives."

The CDC provides a mortality classification for terrorism involving the explosion of marine weapons, the destruction of aircraft, "fires, conflagration, and hot substances," nuclear weapons, and biological or chemical weapons. "What we hope is that these codes never get used again," said Dr. Robert Anderson, lead statistician in the mortality statistics branch of the National Center for Health Statistics.

The designation of homicides will remain for the victims of September 11. The additional terrorism categories serves as an additional layer to provide explanation for the large number of deaths in the country. The nearly 3,000 deaths will represent a significant increase in the homicide rate for 2001. By subtracting the terrorism casualties, CDC officials will have a more accurate picture of the homicide rate (which has been declining over recent years). Final statistics have not been released, but some expect homicide to jump from perhaps the 14th leading cause of death to the 12th. The new category will not be applied to earlier terrorism deaths, such as the victims of the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. If it were, more than 700 more deaths would receive such a classification.

There have been other recent additions to mortality statistics. HIV was included in 1987. Sudden Infant Death Syndrome was included in 1973.

Source: Chart data comes from http://www.albany.edu/sourcebook/1995/pdf/t3201.pfd; Hostetler, A.J. "U.S. Focus: Understanding Homicide Rate." Times-Dispatch, September 110, 2002; "Classification of Death and Injury Resulting from Terrorism." Retrieved September 12, 2002 from http://www.cdc.gov; Elizabeth Weinstein. "Tracking Terror's Rising Toll." Wall Street Journal, January 25, 2002, P. A13.