A Fallen Hero - Video Inside

9/11 COP'S LUNG DEATH

http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/61110.htm

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By MURRAY WEISS

January 7, 2006 -- A police detective has died from lung disease, which the NYPD believes he contracted while working at Ground Zero after the 9/11 attacks.

The tragedy makes James Zadroga, 34, the first rescue worker to die from illness attributed to the Ground Zero rubble, a police spokesperson said yesterday.

The Manhattan homicide detective retired in 2004 because of his disability. He died at his family's Jersey home yesterday.

"He was a hero, he disregarded his own health and life to rescue people at Ground Zero," said Michael Palladino, head of the Detectives' Endowment Association.

Zadroga, whose wife died two years ago from cancer at age 29, was in 7 World Trade Center when it started to collapse. He spent another 470 hours in the soot-filled wreckage.

One month after he returned to the Manhattan South precinct, Zadroga fell ill. Within two years, he developed "black lung disease," police said.

This is a horrible shame. It literally brings tears to my eyes. We all remember watching these people on our television sets working tirelessly to find survivors. How dare the media ignore a story like this?

I wonder if the media's silence has anything to do with the fact that the EPA and the Bush Administration have a history of manipulating information about the environment to suit policy needs.

In February 2005, "Speakers at the national meeting of the American Association for Advancement of Science expressed concern Sunday that some scientists in key federal agencies are being ignored or even pressured to change study conclusions that don't support policy positions." Their concerns are well-founded. In June 2005, The New York Times reported that Philip A. Cooney, "removed or adjusted descriptions of climate research that government scientists and their supervisors, including some senior Bush administration officials, had already approved" so as to play down emissions' links to Global Warming. Mr. Cooney served as chief of staff for the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Now, however, he serves Exxon.

In July 2005, the EPA purposefully held back incriminating reports about our fuel economy so an Energy Bill that served not the people, but the corporations, would pass. As quoted by CBS News, the energy bill "sends billions of dollars in tax breaks and subsidies to energy companies, but is expected to do little to reduce U.S. oil consumption or dampen high energy prices." The EPA's report stated, "loopholes in American fuel economy regulations have allowed automakers to produce cars and trucks that are significantly less fuel-efficient, on average than they were in the late 1980's." No wonder they didn't want it to be known. We've done nothing to become more fuel-efficient, and in fact, have gone backwards. Now, as a result, we've passed an energy bill that helps us not at all.

In August 2003, CBS News reported that "White House officials pressured the agency to prematurely assure the public that the air was safe to breathe a week after the World Trade Center collapse". Why would they do such a thing? Now, as a result, 9/11 firefighters are suffering from long-term lung damage, and now, sadly, a 9/11 Hero has died.

Unfortunately, the deceit does not end with 9/11. Hugh Kaufmann, a Senior Policy Analyst at the Environmental Protection Agency, said that in regards to Katrina, "that a government cover-up is taking place right now, as we speak, to hide information about the dangerous toxins in the flood waters of the Gulf Coast region." Hugh Kaufmann was also the chief investigator for the 9/11 clean-up. He says, "that the Bush administration engaged in the same practice after 9/11—covering up the truth about the dangers in the air and water and lying to the public in the weeks after the disaster."

The sad thing is, there are people within our Government who are aware of what's going on with the EPA and the Bush Administration, and have done little to nothing about it. In October 2005, the Associated Press reported that "The Bush administration was accused Thursday by senators in both parties of minimizing health hazards from the toxic soup left by Hurricane Katrina, just as they said it did with air pollution in New York from the Sept. 11 attacks." In December 2005, the Associated Press also reported Congress Researchers, "say the Environmental Protection Agency skewed its analysis of air pollution legislation to favor President Bush's plan". Hillary Clinton and Jerrold Nadler of New York , "had criticized past EPA testing efforts and demanded more thorough scientific work.", and now as a result, the Environmental Protection Agency has developed a new, "plan for testing any dust that may remain in private homes and commercial space from the collapse of the World Trade Center more than four years ago." Lawmakers even addressed it as being "too little, too late", and I'm sure Hillary is thinking about 2006, and possibly 2008 (Heaven forbid).

It's a damn shame the media isn't covering the death of a 9/11 Hero. Maybe it would open up people's minds to what's going on. I guess that's not what the "Powers That Be" want.

He may be a hero, but there are many heroes out there that saw/heard/felt explosions that day who are not speaking up. That makes them accessories after the fact.

New York Terrorism Hotline: 1-866-Safe-NYS

Speak up if you see any suspicious activities, such as fixing elections, fixing the facts to justify war in Iraq, flying planes into and demolishing buildings in New York, etc.

Well... this hero died. Today is his day. ;)

"was in 7 World Trade Center when it started to collapse"

"when Mr. Silverstein was recounting these events for a television documentary he stated, “I said, you know, we've had such terrible loss of life. Maybe the smartest thing to do is to pull it.” Mr. McQuillan has stated that by “it,” Mr. Silverstein meant the contingent of firefighters remaining in the building."

How could she be in WTC7 when it collapsed if Silverstein "pulled" everyone out?

http://www.911truth.org/article.php?...60107141425322

Here's an interview with Hugh Kaufmann... I don't know with who...

http://www.buzzflash.com/contributor...on_9_13_05.mp3

Goodbye to dad poisoned by 9/11

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/sto...p-324168c.html

BY AUSTIN FENNER
1/11/2006

Motorcycle cops salute as hearse carrying Zadroga’s body passes yesterday on its way to Holy Cross Cemetery in Arlington, N.J.

As bugler plays taps, NYPD Detective James Zadroga's coffin is carried from Queen of Peace Catholic Church in North Arlington, N.J.

Tragedy had taken the 4-year-old girl's parents from her, first her mother two years ago, and now her father.

As Tylerann Zadroga sat for another funeral yesterday, loved ones reassured her that her dad, former NYPD Detective James Zadroga, died a hero - poisoned as he helped clean up the burning ruins of the World Trade Center.

"My granddaughter has accepted the fact her dad died," said the detective's father, Joseph Zadroga, a retired North Arlington, N.J., police chief. "We told her he died a hero."

While an autopsy is still pending on 34-year-old Zadroga's official cause of death, the NYPD did award him a tax-free disability pension of three-quarters pay in July 2004. Zadroga's mother, Linda Zadroga, said her son, who developed the infamous World Trade Center cough, was diagnosed by doctors as having black lung disease.

Zadroga, who logged nearly 500 hours during the recovery effort at Ground Zero, died last Thursday.

After the service at Queen of Peace Catholic Church in North Arlington, Zadroga's parents said his death should serve as a wakeup call to first responders who toiled along the smoky pile of death and destruction.

"My son had a gallium scan and it showed he had glass and people's bones in his lungs," said his heartbroken mother.

She urged recovery workers to get a gallium scan, an exhaustive test that uses a special camera to take pictures of specific tissues in the body.

"We want to help these other people," she added.

Zadroga's wife, Ronda, 29, died two years ago from a stress-related illness, said family members.

Tylerann is being raised by James Zadroga's parents, who now live in Little Egg Harbor, N.J.

Mike Palladino, president of the Detectives' Endowment Association, said Zadroga's death is the first post-9/11 death of a city worker who was exposed to the hazardous material at Ground Zero.

The Environmental Protection Agency, which urged workers to use respirators at Ground Zero, did find elevated levels of pollutants on the pile at Ground Zero, as fires burned for months after the 9/11 attacks.

"The Environmental Protection Agency, which urged workers to use respirators at Ground Zero, did find elevated levels of pollutants on the pile at Ground Zero, as fires burned for months after the 9/11 attacks."

By saying the air was ok to breathe, how is that urging workers to use respirators?

Growing Concern About Respiratory Disease from 9/11

http://1010wins.com/topstories/local...013160226.html

Jan 13, 2006 4:19 pm US/Eastern

(1010 WINS) (NEW YORK) Three men who responded to the World Trade Center on September 11th have died over the last seven months of what their families and colleagues say are respiratory illnesses directly caused by their work at ground zero.

Robin Herbert, who directs a medical-monitoring program at Mount Sinai Medical Center for more than 14,000 ground zero workers, said it's not inconceivable that a person could die of respiratory disease related to September 11th.

Police Officer James Zadroga spent 16 hours a day toiling in the World Trade Center ruins for a month, breathing in the toxic air. Emergency Medical Technician Timothy Keller said he coughed up bits of gravel from his lungs after the towers fell. And EMT Felix Hernandez spent days at the site searching for victims.

Donald Faeth, an emergency medical technician and union officer, says he thinks that several rescue workers "died that day and didn't realize that they died that day.''

He added that both Keller and Hernandez, each with a decade on the job, were nonsmokers and had no previous health problems before September 11th.

Doctors running different health screening programs say it will take decades to get a clear picture of the long-term health effects of working at ground zero.

The city department of Health and Mental Hygiene, which is tracking the health of 71,000 people exposed to September 11th dust and debris, said it's too soon to say whether any deaths among its enrolled members are linked to trade center exposure.

David Worby, an attorney representing more than 5-thousand people who are suing those who supervised the 9/11 cleanup over their illnesses, said 21 of his clients have died of September 11th-related diseases since the middle of 2004.

He's not authorized to release their names, but said he represented people who toiled at ground zero, at the Fresh Kills landfill in Staten Island where trade center debris was moved, and at the city morgue.

Worby called it "just the tip of the iceberg.'' He predicted that "many, many more people are going to die from the aftermath of the toxicity.''

Congressman Jerry Nadler, whose district includes the trade center site, blames some of the illnesses on the failure to provide some workers with proper masks or respiratory protection. A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study found in 2004 that only one in five workers wore respirators to block out the dust laced with asbestos, glass fibers, pulverized cement and other chemicals.

Nadler said all the people exposed should be monitored for life.

9/11 workers die after respiratory illnesses
Links to 'Ground Zero' exposure unknown

http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/01/17...ingworkers.ap/

(Gold9472: 10 days late, and full of lies.)

Tuesday, January 17, 2006; Posted: 2:58 p.m. EST (19:58 GMT)

NEW YORK (AP) -- James Zadroga spent 16 hours a day toiling in the World Trade Center ruins for a month, breathing in debris-choked air. Timothy Keller said he coughed up bits of gravel from his lungs after the towers fell on September 11, 2001. Felix Hernandez spent days at the site helping to search for victims.

All three men died in the past seven months of what their families and colleagues say were persistent respiratory illnesses directly caused by their work at Ground Zero.

While thousands of people who either worked at or lived near the site have reported ailments such as "trade center cough" since the terrorist attacks, some say that only now are the consequences of working at the site becoming heartbreakingly clear.

"I'm very fearful," said Donald Faeth, an emergency medical technician and officer in a union with two of the ground zero workers who died last year. "I think that there are several people who died that day and didn't realize that they died that day."

Some officials say it is too early to draw that conclusion. Doctors running different health screening programs say it will take decades to get a clear picture of the long-term health effects of working at ground zero.

The city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, which is tracking the health of 71,000 people exposed to September 11 dust and debris, said last week that it is too soon to say whether any deaths or illnesses among its enrolled members are linked to trade center exposure.

But Robin Herbert, who directs a medical-monitoring program at Mount Sinai Medical Center for more than 14,000 ground zero workers, said "certainly it is not inconceivable" that a person could die of respiratory disease related to September 11.

Karin DeShore said she does not need scientists to tell her what caused the death of her friend Keller, 41. DeShore was a Fire Department captain who took Keller to the trade center on September 11, and barely escaped the south tower's collapse.

"He came back coughing" two days later, she said. Faeth said that Keller told him that he coughed up debris so violently he could barely breathe on September 11, and later developed emphysema.

Keller went home to Levittown on medical leave in March. He died on June 23 of heart disease complicated by bronchitis and emphysema, the Nassau County medical examiner's office said.

Felix Hernandez, 31, worked on rescue and recovery work at ground zero following the attacks, said his former supervisor, Lt. Regina Pellegrino. In 2002, "it started with a cold he couldn't shake ... and it kept getting worse and worse and worse," she said.

Hernandez was diagnosed with various respiratory diseases and was told by doctors at one point that he may have cystic fibrosis, Pellegrino said. He left the job in 2004 when he became too weak to climb stairs, and died October 23 of respiratory ailments in Florida, said colleagues who spoke with his family.

Both Keller and Hernandez, each with a decade on the job, were nonsmokers and had no previous health problems before September 11, Faeth said.

Zadroga, a 34-year-old New York detective, logged 470 hours at the site in 2001, including September 11, and died January 5. Family members and co-workers said he had contracted black lung disease and had high levels of mercury in his brain. Autopsy results have not been released. (Full story)

David Worby, an attorney representing more than 5,000 plaintiffs suing those who supervised the cleanup over their illnesses, said 21 of his clients have died of September 11-related diseases since mid-2004. He said he was not authorized to release their names, but represented people who toiled at ground zero, at the Fresh Kills landfill in Staten Island where trade center debris was moved, and at the city morgue.

"This is just the tip of the iceberg," Worby said. "Many, many more people are going to die from the aftermath of the toxicity."

Rep. Jerrold Nadler, whose congressional district includes the trade center site, blames some of the illnesses on the failure to provide some workers with proper masks or respiratory protection. A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study found in 2004 that one in five workers wore respirators while they worked at the site to block out dust laced with asbestos, glass fibers, pulverized cement and other substances.

"All the people exposed should be monitored for life so that we know what happened," Nadler said.

"Some officials say it is too early to draw that conclusion. Doctors running different health screening programs say it will take decades to get a clear picture of the long-term health effects of working at ground zero."

What a fucking lie.

Emergency Responder Dies From 9/11-Related Illness

http://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/index...=203&aid=57898

March 17, 2006

A Bronx EMT died Wednesday, becoming the third emergency responder to die from a 9/11-related illness in the last year.

Retired paramedic Deborah Reeve, 41, suffered from mesothelioma, a type of lung cancer typically associated with asbestos exposure. Reeve worked down at the World Trade Center site for several weeks following the terrorist attacks.

The cancer left the mother of two from the Bronx emaciated and unable to walk. Her husband David, also a paramedic, says his wife worked at the World Trade Center site morgue for a couple of days after the attacks.

Her doctor says exposure to carcinogens and asbestos is what led to her illness.

Fire Commissioner Nicolas Scoppetta labeled the death as an administrative line of duty death and has offered to pay up to $25,000 for her funeral.

A viewing is scheduled for Saturday and Sunday with the funeral on Monday.

Another Hero has fallen.

FUCK YOU EPA.

See what you have done to the TRUE hero's of 9-11.



FUCK YOU

The EPA were the ones who said everything was ok, and to go about life as if nothing happened.

They are scumbags, and these heroes who keep dying are dying because of what they did.

The people involved in that coverup should be convicted in a court of law, and given the MAXIMUM penalty.

However, we all know who is to blame for what caused the environmental disaster.

FUCK THEM

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Gold9472

The EPA were the ones who said everything was ok, and to go about life as if nothing happened.

They are scumbags, and these heroes who keep dying are dying because of what they did.

The people involved in that coverup should be convicted in a court of law, and given the MAXIMUM penalty.

However, we all know who is to blame for what caused the environmental disaster.

FUCK THEM

---

Could not have said it better. Thanks Jon.

Study: 9/11 Escapees Have Health Problems

http://en.chinabroadcast.cn/1641/200...8/65@74707.htm

By AMY WESTFELDT, Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK - A majority of survivors of the 2001 attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center suffered from respiratory ailments and depression, anxiety and other psychological problems up to three years later, federal health officials said Friday.

The people who escaped from collapsed or damaged buildings on Sept. 11, 2001, were several times as likely to suffer from breathing problems or psychological trauma if they were caught in the cloud of trade center dust and debris that covered lower Manhattan, researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

"The trauma of being caught in the cloud itself, the whole experience had an impact on their ... psychological health later on," said Dr. Robert M. Brackbill, a CDC doctor working with the World Trade Center Health Registry, which has been tracking the health of more than 71,000 people who worked at ground zero or were in the area on Sept. 11.

Friday's study drew from preliminary interviews with 8,418 adults in the registry who escaped from the twin towers, the collapsed Seven World Trade Center and more than 30 buildings that suffered extensive damage on Sept. 11. More than 70 percent escaped from the twin towers.

The interviews took place more than two years after the attacks, between Sept. 5, 2003, and Nov. 20, 2004, and did not involve medical examinations. Follow-up surveys are planned this month.

"We are just beginning to learn about the health effects of the worst day in New York City's history," said Daniel Slippen, a survivor of the attacks and a member of the registry's community advisory board. "It is critical to know whether these physical and mental effects will continue, diminish or grow worse over time."

City officials in charge of the registry say it will likely take 20 years or more to determine whether 9/11 exposure led to increased cancer deaths or illnesses among survivors.

The study said more than six in 10 were caught in the clouds of trade center dust that enveloped the area. Those people were nearly three times as likely to have respiratory problems, 40 percent more likely to experience severe psychological problems and five times more likely to report suffering a stroke, Brackbill said.

More than 56 percent of the survivors said they had new or worsening respiratory ailments, including sinus problems, shortness of breath and a persistent cough. More than 43 percent sustained a physical injury on Sept. 11; the most common were eye injuries.

Almost all of the people studied witnessed at least three events likely to cause psychological trauma, such as the collapse of the towers, the deaths or injuries of others or people jumping from the twin towers, the study said.

More than 64 percent of the survivors said they were depressed, anxious or had other emotional problems, and nearly 11 percent were in severe psychological distress at the time of their interview, the study said.

ASBESTOS SHIRT IS A TOXIC NEW WRINKLE IN WTC WOE

http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/64193.htm

By LINDA STASI and SUSAN EDELMAN

April 9, 2006 -- Sky-high toxic levels of potentially deadly asbestos still cling to the fibers of this ordinary white dress shirt - worn by a 9/11 volunteer for two days at Ground Zero, a shocking analysis sought by The Post reveals.

Community liaison Yehuda Kaploun volunteered at Ground Zero for 48 hours immediately after the attack, wearing the shirt as he watched good friend and beloved Fire Department chaplain Mychal Judge die in a building collapse.

The volunteer kept his contaminated shirt packed in a sealed plastic bag until last week, when The Post sent the garment to RJ Lee Group laboratories for testing.

Analyzed portions of his shirt collar reveal a chilling concentration of chrysotile asbestos - 93,000 times higher than the average typically found in the environment in U.S. cities. That appears to be even higher than what the EPA said was found in the most contaminated, blown-out building after 9/11.

While there appear to be no specific regulations for asbestos levels on clothing, one lawyer for relief workers called the sickly shirt's amount "astronomically toxic."

It's the "high end of surface concentrations that you would find anywhere," added Chuck Kraisinger, a senior scientist for RJ Lee.

Testing also revealed the shirt was contaminated with zinc, mercury, antimony, barium, chromium, cobalt, copper, lead and molybdenum. Tons of the heavy metals were pulverized and burned in the debris in fires that raged for four months.

The test results are especially frightening in light of last week's report by the Centers for Disease Control that 62 percent of those caught in the massive dust cloud suffered respiratory problems. Also, 46 percent of civilians living or working in the immediate area but not caught in the cloud still experienced respiratory problems - and 57 percent reported new and worsening respiratory symptoms.

Making matters worse, Dr. Mark Rosen, chief of the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Beth Israel Hospital, said that because it can take decades for asbestos cancers to develop, "We just won't know the effect [of Ground Zero exposure] for years."

About 400,000 tons of asbestos were released in the World Trade Center collapse. David Worby, a lawyer for 7,300 rescue and recovery workers who inhaled the smoke and dust at Ground Zero for months, called the area "the worst toxic site ever.

"It's mind-boggling the poisons they made these people work through," Worby said. "The amount of dioxins there make Vietnam look like a kindergarten."

"It is an urgent situation. If the government does not act . . . in terms of setting up [widespread] medical testing . . . more people over the next few years will die of toxic diseases than died on 9/11."

According to the Mesothelioma Resource Center, "Asbestos becomes dangerous when it breaks into pieces small enough to enter deep into the lungs. The longer period of time that a person is exposed to asbestos fibers, the higher the risk of developing lung disease later in life."

The most common types of diseases caused by asbestos exposure, according to the center, are mesothelioma, either benign or malignant, cancer and asbestosis.

On 9/11, Kaploun was a 35-year-old liaison between the Police and Fire departments and the Orthodox Jewish community, as well as a part-time Hatzolah Ambulance volunteer. He said he doesn't really know why he tucked the shirt away two days after the terror attacks.

"But something told me that it was loaded with stuff - and it goes to show you how very wrong these people were whom we trusted," he said.

"I remember coming home, and you know what, I was going to give the shirt to the cleaners, and then somehow, for some reason, I didn't.

"But if my shirt and I can do something to help these people who were there for weeks and months on end - and if this is the kind of numbers needed that will help and support their cases - then that's the blessing."

He said he is "somewhat" concerned about his own health in the future.

"But so far, thank God, everything is good," he said. "I've been checked and I check out OK - but I only hope the government will do the right thing for all the people who were there for an extended period of time.

"I was with government officials and we saw thousands of people covered in this soot, and while we were assured that preliminarily there was no danger, obviously this is not the case."

Kaploun was there the first day of the attacks with Judge, who perished in the collapse in front of Kaploun's eyes.

"Father Judge always said to me, the son of a rabbi, 'When you're a member of the clergy you have to have an easy smile.' And he always did. He was a good man."

Although Kaploun may have saved his shirt in honor of the heroic efforts he saw that day, he hopes it may ultimately turn out to be the very thing that will help other 9/11 volunteers get help for illnesses they develop in the future.

9/11 First Responders With Cancer Sue City

http://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/index...id=1&aid=58487

April 09, 2006

A group of first responders say their brain illness is linked to toxic air and dust from 9/11.

A lawyer for several of those affected says the group is seeking immediate action by the city along with monetary damages. Dozens of people, including six NYPD officers, developed brain cancer after September 11th. Many are blaming the illness on their rescue and recovery work at the Trade Center site.

Their attorney claims that out of the 7,300 sick workers and family members involved in the case, 41 have now died.

The city's lawyers say they will not comment on the case, because they have not yet seen the lawsuit.

9/11 rescue work blamed for cop's death

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_i...4819082829R131

By Amy Westfeldt
April 12 2006 at 10:16AM

New York - The death of a 34-year-old police detective who developed respiratory disease after working at ground zero is "directly related" to September 11, 2001, a New Jersey coroner said in the first known ruling positively linking a death to recovery work at the World Trade Centre site.

James Zadroga's family and union released his autopsy results on Tuesday, saying they were proof of the first death of a city police officer related to cleanup work at ground zero after the terrorist attacks.

"It is felt with a reasonable degree of medical certainty that the cause of death in this case was directly related to the 9/11 incident," wrote Gerard Breton, a pathologist at the Ocean County (New Jersey) medical examiner's office in the February 28 autopsy.

A class action lawsuit and families of ground zero workers have alleged that more than two dozen deaths are related to exposure to Trade Centre dust, which doctors believe contained a number of toxic chemicals including asbestos.

Zadroga, of Little Egg Harbor, NJ, died in January of respiratory failure and had inflammation in his lung tissue due to "a history of exposure to toxic fumes and dust," Breton wrote.

The detective spent 470 hours after the attacks sifting through the twin towers' smouldering ruins, wearing a paper mask for protection. His breathing became laboured within weeks, he developed a cough and he had to use an oxygen tank to breathe. He retired on disability in November 2004.

The coroner found material "consistent with dust" in Zadroga's lungs and damage to his liver and said his heart and spleen were enlarged.

Zadroga's parents and four-year-old daughter appeared at a news conference with half a dozen other detectives who said they have suffered from cancer, strokes, lung disease and other ailments because of post-September 11 work at the Trade Centre site.

"They all knew it was detrimental to their health," said Joseph Zadroga, James Zadroga's father. "They all knew that, yet they stayed there."

Doctors running health screening programmes, including a city registry following more than 71 000 people, say it will take decades to truly assess the health effects of working at the trade centre site.

A spokesperson for the registry did not immediately return a message seeking comment on Tuesday.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Gold9472

"The Environmental Protection Agency, which urged workers to use respirators at Ground Zero, did find elevated levels of pollutants on the pile at Ground Zero, as fires burned for months after the 9/11 attacks."

By saying the air was ok to breathe, how is that urging workers to use respirators?

---

I work with concrete and you see that all the time, no one tells the guys the dust is poisonous, especially to guys like sandblasters they drop like flies and still the push for awareness and to wear safety equipment in not there.

I imagine the dust would have been worse at the trade towers both silica and melted plastics and such.

I think also the rush to save lives and to do it quickly might have played a factor in why no respirators were being worn.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ThotPolice

I work with concrete and you see that all the time, no one tells the guys the dust is poisonous, especially to guys like sandblasters they drop like flies and still the push for awareness and to wear safety equipment in not there.

I imagine the dust would have been worse at the trade towers both silica and melted plastics and such.

I think also the rush to save lives and to do it quickly might have played a factor in why no respirators were being worn.

---

You don't get it. Not only did they not tell them to use respirators, they told them the air was ok to breathe.

Yep, everyone was told the air was safe to breathe. They even told people living in surrounding apartments to simply wipe up the dust with a damp cloth like any other dirt.

That dust was laden with asbestos, bad idea.

Problems mount from 9/11 fallout

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4904188.stm

By David Shukman
4/13/2006

The number of people with medical problems linked to the 9/11 attacks on New York has risen to at least 15,000.

The figure, put together for the BBC, counts those receiving treatment for problems related to breathing in dust.

Many of the victims say the government offered false reassurances that the Manhattan air was safe and are now pursuing a class-action lawsuit.

On Tuesday, a coroner said the death of a policeman who developed a respiratory disease was "directly linked" to 9/11.

James Zadroga - who worked at Ground Zero - died in January. The New Jersey coroner's ruling was the first of its kind.

WTC 'cough'
Jeff Endean used to be the macho leader of a police Swat firearms team. Now, he has trouble breathing and survives on the cocktail of drugs he takes every day.

Kelly Colangelo, an IT specialist, used to have good health but now endures a range of problems including allergies and sinus pain.

"It worried me that I've been damaging my health just being in my home," she told the BBC News website. "It also worries me that I see the health impact on the [the emergency crews at the scene]. We were also exposed and I wonder if in 10-15 years from now, am I going to be another victim?"

Both are victims of what used to be called "World Trade Center cough", an innocuous sounding condition that many thought would pass once the dust that rose from the attacks of 9/11 had blown away.

But the medical problems have not merely intensified; the list of victims has grown alarmingly at the same time.

The apparent cause? The long line of contaminants carried by the dust into the lungs of many of those at, or near, the scene on that fateful day.

'Real' figure
A further 7,000 firefighters are recorded as having a wide range of medical problems, producing a total of 15,000. But the overall numbers affected could easily be far higher.

As the US government's newly appointed "health czar" John Howard confirmed to the BBC, there were between 30,000 and 50,000 people at or near Ground Zero who might have been exposed to the hazardous dust and no one really knows how many are suffering problems now.

Consisting of billions of microscopic particles, the dust was especially toxic because of its contents.

A grim list includes lead from 50,000 computers, asbestos from the twin towers' structures and dangerously high levels of alkalinity from the concrete.

Long time
Many of the people now suffering were sent to Ground Zero to help search for survivors. Others volunteered. Still more just happened to be living or working in the area.

The latter feel particularly aggrieved, even betrayed.

In the days following the attacks, the head of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) declared that monitoring operations had proved the "air was safe to breathe". And with that reassurance, the authorities reopened the globally important financial hub of Wall Street.

At the time it was seen as a critical morale-booster to a wounded nation.

Yet now the federal courts have allowed a class-action lawsuit to be filed against those very authorities.

Last month, a judge described the EPA's reassurances as "misleading" and "shocking the conscience". The legal process could last years.

A special report on the dust fallout from the 9/11 attacks will be featured on BBC World starting on Wednesday 3 May at 1930 GMT. The documentary will also be carried on BBC News 24.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Gold9472

You don't get it. Not only did they not tell them to use respirators, they told them the air was ok to breathe.

---

That’s even more fucked up, concrete dust alone is toxic, not to mention the asbestos.

Good way to cut down the number of witnesses?

With 9/11 Dust Officially Labeled a Killer, Debate Revives

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/14/nyregion/14dust.html

By ANTHONY DePALMA
Published: April 14, 2006

In the cold, clinical language of the autopsy report of a retired New York City detective that was released this week, there were words that thousands of New Yorkers have come to anticipate and to fear.

"It is felt with a reasonable degree of medical certainty that the cause of death in this case was directly related to the 9/11 incident," stated the report from the medical examiner's office in Ocean County, N.J.

That "reasonable degree of medical certainty" — coroner language for "as sure as I can be" — provides the first official link made by a medical expert between the hazardous air at ground zero after the trade center collapse and the death of someone who worked in the rescue effort.

The report has reopened old wounds, giving lawsuits brought by first responders and downtown residents new evidence to back up allegations that the toxic mixture of dust and fumes at ground zero was deadly.

The report has also reignited a fierce debate over whether to classify deaths like that of Detective James Zadroga, 34 — who died on Jan. 5 of respiratory failure at his parents' New Jersey home — as being "in the line of duty," making survivors eligible for more benefits.

Dr. Robin Herbert, who has screened thousands of first responders through the World Trade Center Worker and Volunteer Medical Screening Program, called Detective Zadroga's autopsy report a "sentinel event" and a warning sign.

"It should be taken very seriously and investigated with great vigor," Dr. Herbert said.

But while acknowledging that those exposed to the dust may develop fatal diseases, many medical experts who have tracked the health effects of the trade center collapse have been reluctant to cross the line in between probability and certainty.

The autopsy report went further than any other medical document to link a death to the dust, but it by no means provides conclusive proof of the dust's general toxicity and its impact on other workers at the site. That, experts generally agree, may take 20 years to play out, depending on the latency period for many cancers and other diseases that could be linked to exposure to the toxic materials.

Proving the cause of a disease, even when the cause may seem obvious, is extremely difficult. Dr. Michael M. Baden, former chief medical examiner of New York and a forensics expert, said the phrase "reasonable degree of certainty" is the standard term used in court to mean that given the available information, "it's very likely that that opinion is correct."

That said, Dr. Baden noted that given the impact of such a finding, he would have expected the medical examiner's office to consult with doctors who had tested or treated other first responders before coming to such a conclusion. Other experts said that tests should have been done on the particles found in Detective Zadroga's lungs to compare them with the contents of the dust from the trade center site.

Neither step was taken. The autopsy was performed by Dr. Gerard Breton, a 73-year-old retired pathologist who has been on contract to the medical examiner's office in Ocean County for a decade.

Dr. Breton said in a telephone interview yesterday that he did not attempt to classify the "innumerable foreign body granulomas" containing "unidentified foreign materials" in Detective Zadroga's lungs.

He also did not consult any doctors besides the detective's physician, who he said had informed him of Detective Zadroga's work at ground zero.

Nonetheless, Dr. Breton said what he found was unmistakable.

"I cannot personally understand that anyone could see what I saw in the lungs, and know that the person was exposed to ground zero, and not make the same link I made," said Dr. Breton, who graduated from the University of Haiti in 1960 and did his residency at St. Peter's Medical Center in New Brunswick.

Detective Zadroga, who joined the New York Police Department in 1992, did not smoke and had no known history of asthma. His family has long believed that the 450 grueling hours that the highly decorated officer spent working on recovery efforts at ground zero in 2001 had filled his lungs with fiberglass, pulverized concrete and a toxic brew of chemicals that fatally scarred his lungs, leading to his death at the age of 34.

Joseph Zadroga, Detective Zadroga's father, said his son and other officers who had worked at the trade center site knew the air they were breathing probably would cause health problems down the road. "You had to be a fool not to realize that," he said on Tuesday at a news conference in Manhattan.

Detective Zadroga's colleagues in the police department have argued that hundreds of officers and detectives who were also exposed to the dust cloud will likely suffer from a variety of serious illnesses, including a number of blood cancers, because of their work at ground zero.

Michael J. Palladino, president of the Detectives' Endowment Association, said that he wanted state pension law amended so that Detective Zadroga's death and others like it are reclassified as occurring in the line of duty, qualifying survivors to receive larger benefits. A bill to make such a change has been proposed in Albany.

In Brooklyn yesterday, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg noted that a law was passed last year allowing city workers who got sick after responding to the trade center site to qualify for full disability pensions, even after they retire. He called Detective Zadroga's death tragic, but said that the autopsy report may not be definitive.

"We'll see what other doctors say," Mr. Bloomberg said. "Generally, there are lots of other contributing factors."

More than 7,300 people who worked at the trade center recovery site — police officers, firefighters and constructions workers — have joined in a class-action suit seeking damages from their employers.

David E. Worby, the lawyer handling that suit, said about 40 of the plaintiffs have already died. "At a minimum, their diseases were aggravated, and accelerated by the toxic exposure," he said.

Toxic substances known to cause cancer, like benzene and asbestos, normally take decades to develop the disease. Mr. Worby said the doctors and scientists he had consulted believe that the complex mixture of chemicals that resulted from the collapse of the two towers — along with everything in them — may have created a unique compound that acts as an accelerant, vastly increasing the speed by which known carcinogens trigger cancer.

"It's a horror show," he said.

In a separate class-action lawsuit against federal environmental officials, residents and school children from Lower Manhattan claim they were given false assurance that the air around ground zero was safe enough for them to move back in a few days after the attack.

In February, a federal judge in Manhattan ruled that statements about safety made by officials after 9/11 were misleading and "without question conscience-shocking."

9/11 workers see hope, fear in autopsy

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercu...h/14389577.htm

DEVLIN BARRETT
Associated Press
4/20/2006

NEW YORK - An autopsy linking the death of a police officer to dust at the World Trade Center site was chilling confirmation to many 9/11 rescuers that more than four years later, the disaster is still claiming lives.

"It should open up people's eyes," said former firefighter Kevin Riley, who had to retire with lung problems after rushing to the scene as the twin towers collapsed.

A class-action lawsuit claims there have been dozens of deaths related to the cloud of debris that hung over the ruins. Hundreds of police officers, firefighters and others who labored at ground zero have respiratory illnesses and other chronic disorders they blame on asbestos and other substances. And there are others who are healthy now but fear they will develop cancer or other illnesses down the line.

Federal and city health experts say it could take 20 years to find definite links between the toxic cloud and some diseases or deaths, because most cancers take that long or even longer to develop and decades of statistics are needed to prove a relationship.

Last week, though, an autopsy report was released on 34-year-old police Detective James Zadroga, and it is being cited by his family and union as the first medical proof that people are still dying from the attacks.

Zadroga died in January of what was listed as pulmonary disease and respiratory failure. The autopsy found material "consistent with dust" in Zadroga's lungs, and Gerard Breton, a pathologist at the Ocean County, N.J., medical examiner's office concluded: "It is felt with a reasonable degree of medical certainty that the cause of death in this case was directly related to the 9/11 incident."

The autopsy did more than confirm families' suspicions. It renewed fear.

"I'm sure not just in my household but in other people's households, the story upsets you, because my wife and my kids read that and obviously in the back of their heads, they think I'm next, so it's good and bad," said Riley, 48.

City and federal officials tracking 9/11 health problems insist it is still far too early to know if Zadroga's death is a "sentinel case" - an early warning of what could be a rising death toll.

Riley and many other Sept. 11 rescuers are receiving disability pay or workers' compensation for their illnesses. Some rescuers also want to make sure that when they die, they get the full death benefits available to police officers killed in the line of duty - something that would require a change in state law.

But many of the rescuers say the main issue is not the money. Instead, they say, they want clearer answers as to what is making them sick, and better treatment for whatever it is.

"It seems like they're trying to do the right thing, and it's good to help people in the future, but they don't have any answers for us now," said 49-year-old Joe Sykes, a fire marshal who worked at the morgue at ground zero until the end of October 2001, when his coughing forced him to take medical leave.

"It's frustrating for me, and frustrating for my family. When they get those answers, are we still going to be alive?"

To provide answers, Mount Sinai School of Medicine is conducting medical exams and screening to track symptoms among rescue workers and construction workers.

Also, city employees and researchers are operating the World Trade Center Health Registry, which uses questionnaires and phone calls to collect information from 71,437 people who worked at ground zero or were in the area. The city registry hopes to monitor their health over decades.

Critics say the research is useless if it cannot be used to help those suffering now.

"If we're looking 10 or 20 years down the road, then we're talking about a body count. I'm not looking to do a body count, I'm talking about finding out what problems exist and treating them," Pat Lynch, president of the city's police union. "We're not there to fill someone's filing cabinet."

Sept. 11 health official says he's worried about illnesses

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/h...ks-health.html

By Devlin Barrett
ASSOCIATED PRESS
1:16 p.m. April 24, 2006

WASHINGTON – The government's point man on Sept. 11 health programs said he is worried that an autopsy linking a retired detective's death to recovery work at ground zero may be a warning sign of other life-threatening cases.

Dr. John Howard also said it will take time to determine whether there is a scientific link between deaths and exposure to toxic dust. Some epidemiologists have said it will take 20 years or more to prove such a link.

Howard, who is to meet in New York this week with congressional leaders about ground zero health issues, was tapped by the Bush administration in February to coordinate the federal response to ongoing Sept. 11 health programs.

That role took on greater urgency with the April release of retired Det. James Zadroga's autopsy, which concluded “with a reasonable degree of medical certainty that the cause of death in this case was directly related to the 9/11 incident.” The autopsy said Zadroga died in January of respiratory failure caused by exposure to toxic dust.

Howard, whose day job is overseeing the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, told The Associated Press in a recent interview the autopsy was “worrisome, and we need to look further in this case.”

Doctors and government officials worry Zadroga's death may be a so-called sentinel case, an early harbinger of future deaths from such exposure.

“You have a particular case with characteristics that are unusual,” Howard said.

He cited Zadroga's relatively young age, 34, and diseased heart muscle. “Just based on that, you would say, gee, is this a sentinel case?” he said. “This may be a warning and requires attention and vigilance.”

Howard said his primary goal is to find out how many ground zero workers are suffering ill effects.

“The first issue is treatment. That is primary,” he said.

Rep. Vito Fossella, R-N.Y., said he was pleased Howard is aggressively examining cases like the Zadroga death.

“Clearly and sadly, Detective Zadroga and perhaps others will be the first of a wave of those who become the secondary victims of 9/11, though they didn't go down with the towers,” Fossella said.

Whitman, Bush both lied to U.S.

http://www.dailyrecord.com/apps/pbcs...10/1095/NEWS01

5/9/2006

To the Editor:

Two very powerful images remain in my mind from the 9/11 tragedy and the start of the war in Iraq. Environmental Protection Agency Commissioner Christie Whitman's statement from Ground Zero that the air quality was not hazardous and President Bush's photo-op statement. "mission accomplished" from aboard an aircraft carrier.

We now have dead and dying from the air quality at Ground Zero and the continuing war. Their lies are still alive, however.

FRED KANTER
Mountain Lakes

Tracing Lung Ailments That Rose With 9/11 Dust

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/13/ny...rtner=homepage

By ANTHONY DePALMA
Published: May 13, 2006

As they push their investigation into the health risks to workers in the recovery and cleanup operations at ground zero, medical detectives are focusing on a group of lung diseases that can lead to long-term disabilities and, in some cases, death.

After nearly five years, it is still too early for these doctors, scientists and forensic pathologists to say with certainty whether any long-term cancer threat came with exposure to the toxic cloud unleashed by the trade center collapse. But there are already clear signs that the dust, smoke and ash that responders breathed in have led to an increase in diseases that scar the lungs and reduce their capacity to take in and let out air.

The Fire Department tracked a startling increase in cases of a particular lung scarring disease, known as sarcoidosis, among firefighters, which rose to five times the expected rate in the two years after Sept. 11. Though that rate has declined, doctors worry that the disease may be lurking in other firefighters. Experts who regularly see workers who were at ground zero in the 48 hours after the towers' collapse expect monitoring to show many more cases of lung- scarring disorders among that group.

New evidence also suggests that workers who arrived later or worked on the periphery may also be susceptible to debilitating lung ailments.

"We have thousands of people who were down there with unprotected exposures," said Dr. Stephen M. Levin, a director of the World Trade Center Worker and Volunteer Medical Screening Program. "Many will develop asthma and a few will develop this terrible lung scarring that leads to disability or death."

But even in diseases closely related to dust, making a binding connection to ground zero exposure is hard. For instance, the Fire Department has linked sarcoidosis to working at the trade center site, while the Police Department has not.

The clues that led to this new area of medical investigation were stark reminders of what was lost on Sept. 11. They are drawn from cases of statistically unexpected respiratory disease among young responders.

The ailments now seen are far more serious than the general hacking and congestion known as "World Trade Center cough" that initially hit most responders. Rather, these are a set of diseases and disorders that typically take a few years to develop, and in some cases get progressively worse.

The most worrisome to medical experts are granulomatous pulmonary diseases, which show a particular type of swirling marks left on the lungs by foreign matter like dust. Doctors say the severity of the disease is often dictated by a patient's genetic makeup. The diseases include pulmonary fibrosis and sarcoidosis, a sometimes fatal disorder that can be set off when exposure to dust causes the body's immune system to attack itself.

Some people can live with the scarring if they limit their activities, but in others the exposure to foreign material sets off a cascade of ailments that can lead to more debilitating conditions and, eventually, death. Detective James Zadroga, 34, died in January when his badly scarred lungs weakened and his heart gave out. The coroner's report gave the cause of death as "granulomatous pneumonitis," and the autopsy found swirls throughout his lungs caused by foreign material consistent with dust.

Detective Zadroga's death was the first to be officially linked by an autopsy report to exposure to the ground zero dust, although the electronmicroscope comparisons that could have proved the match beyond a reasonable doubt were not done by the coroner's office.

The Uniformed Firefighters Association earlier this year linked the deaths of two firefighters and a battalion chief — from lung disease and respiratory ailments — to the air at ground zero, although the Fire Department itself has not formally acknowledged that those deaths were connected to ground zero work. And three young emergency medical technicians who worked in the dust and smoke at ground zero have died from pulmonary diseases and coronary problems aggravated by their battered lungs, according to the union that represented them.

The use of respirators and dust masks might have reduced the incidence of respiratory ailments, but the most effective ones issued to firefighters are meant to last only 20 minutes. Other responders and volunteers who arrived after the first two days did not use dust masks at all or were only given paper masks, an issue raised in a pending class-action suit against the city and private companies involved in the cleanup.

Although the reported cases of lung disease affect a tiny portion of the 40,000 people who responded to the trade center collapse, they have already caused widespread concern among the survivors, lending urgency to medical efforts to understand the risks and illnesses involved.

"When these cases come to public attention, every individual down there who has some problem breathing thinks, 'I'm next,' " said Dr. Levin, a professor at Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

Dr. Levin's screening program offers the most complete picture of the health consequences of Sept. 11, apart from statistics maintained by the Fire Department on the firefighters. Nearly 12,000 union employees and other workers who were exposed to the trade center dust and debris have been examined.

Dr. Levin said that more than 60 percent of those people developed respiratory problems like sinusitis. He said continued monitoring was beginning to suggest that more serious lung problems might follow; he will complete a new epidemiological study of responders in a few months.

In testimony before a Congressional committee in February, Dr. Kerry J. Kelly, chief medical officer of the Fire Department, outlined the department's concerns about lung diseases. She said one responder awaiting a lung transplant had died of pulmonary fibrosis. And the department was alarmed to find that 20 firefighters had come down with sarcoidosis in the first two years after Sept. 11, "a substantial increase from prior years" that was believed to be linked to "massive dust inhalation" at ground zero.

The high rate, five times the expected level, has since returned to the expected range — a clear sign, doctors say, of a link to Sept. 11. But there is still cause for concern. The disease may take longer to develop in some people than others, doctors said, just as certain groups — including Northern Europeans and African-Americans — have been shown to have a higher incidence of sarcoidosis than the general population.

Medical experts say that proving that exposure to a known toxin caused an illness is notoriously difficult, even in situations where the hazards are as obvious as the thunderhead of dust and smoke that rolled through Lower Manhattan on Sept. 11 and lingered over the rubble pile for weeks.

In some cases, making such links causes so much discord that government agencies have come to conflicting conclusions, extending the misery of those involved.

For example, firefighters who have developed sarcoidosis since Sept. 11 are thought to have contracted the disease because of their work at ground zero. Yet the Police Pension Board has ruled that working at ground zero did not cause the death of a police officer who developed the disease.

"This rift between the Police and Fire Departments is ridiculous," said Michelle Haskett-Godbee, whose husband, Police Officer James J. Godbee Jr., died in December 2004. She said that Officer Godbee, who had worked at or near ground zero for more than 850 hours, suddenly developed a hacking cough and grew progressively weaker, although he had to keep working.

After his lung collapsed in March 2004, Officer Godbee, a former marine and 19-year police veteran, grew frail and listless. In the weeks before he died, he could barely get out of an easy chair at his Stuyvesant Town apartment, Mrs. Godbee said.

The autopsy done by the New York medical examiner's office found that Officer Godbee's lungs were pitted with the blisters and scars caused by sarcoidosis.

Despite the Fire Department's well-researched information on sarcoidosis, the Police Pension Board last June denied Mrs. Godbee's application for a line-of-duty death benefit, which would have provided her widow's benefits — equal to half her husband's annual salary — every year for the rest of her life. The board stated that sarcoidosis is "not known to be related to employment in the police force."

Mrs. Godbee said her husband worked multiple shifts over several months in the area below Canal Street that was clouded in dust from the collapsed buildings. He often came home with the stench on his clothes, and he was never given anything but a paper mask for protection.

"There's no way you can't get sick after smelling all that dust and dirt," said Mrs. Godbee, a school guidance counselor.

Her lawyer, John Patrick Rudden, is trying to force the Fire Department to open the medical records of the firefighters with sarcoidosis in the belief that such information would strengthen Mrs. Godbee's legal challenge of the pension board decision.

Michael T. Murray, general counsel of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, said he expected the appeal to succeed because "the government can't treat two similarly positioned people differently."

Paul J. Browne, a police spokesman, did not defend the board's decision, but he said police officers were usually not exposed to the same smoke and dust as firefighters. He said it was the board, which includes medical experts, and not the department that made pension decisions.

Doctor details findings of study on health of 9/11 rescue workers

http://www.news-journal.com/news/con...UTSpeaker.html

By MELISSA TRESNER
Saturday, May 20, 2006

TYLER — More than 300 firefighters died trying to rescue victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. Hundreds more can no longer work as firefighters because they can't make it up a flight of stairs without wheezing.

Dr. Stephen Levin, the medical director of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, presented findings of a two-year study on the 9/11 responders Friday at the University of Texas Health Center at Tyler.

Levin said many of the responders, including firefighters, law enforcement officers, medical professionals, construction workers and utility workers, suffer from persistent respiratory illnesses because of the toxic particles they inhaled after the towers were struck by airplanes.

Musculoskeletal injuries from falls and falling debris plague responders almost five years later, he said.

His discussion touched on the psychological effects of the search and rescue and cleanup, as well. About 8 percent of the 1,100 initial patients seen at the Mount Sinai clinic expressed thoughts of suicide, Levin said.

From July 2002 through July 2004, Levin's clinic and other clinics in the area evaluated and treated almost 12,000 World Trade Center responders.

He began his presentation, which was part of a daylong "Current Occupational Health Issues" conference at the health center, by showing photographs of rubble, smoke and fires at ground zero. About 40 health care workers attended the conference.

"This picture was taken in the afternoon of Sept. 11. It looks like dusk because there's so much airborne materials. There was a tremendous release of pulverized construction materials," Levin said.

Pulverized cement and gypsum were the most harmful particles inhaled by responders, Levin said. Pulverized glass, asbestos, silica, acid mist (from burned plastic furniture and pipes) and heavy metals, such as lead and mercury, also were among the toxic inhalants at the site.

Cement particles were corrosive and burned the lungs, he said.

Levin showed another photograph of a line of firefighters crawling on top of debris toward a thick cloud of smoke.

"No one (in the photo) despite this haze of dust was wearing what we would call adequate respiratory protection," he said.

He said responders on the day of the attacks had no respiratory protection. On the second day, firefighters were issued masks, but many didn't wear the gear because it prohibited responders from communicating with the other rescue workers. Some workers didn't know how to use them.

Some people wrapped cloths around their faces, but that actually did little to protect them from inhaling fine particles, Levin said.

He said residents who lived near the site were exposed when they returned to their homes a couple of weeks later. Schoolchildren also have experienced health problems related to the debris.

Levin said he saw one patient, an emergency medical technician, who was training for a marathon before September 11. The man had never had respiratory problems until that day. He now has asthma.

Levin said the Environmental Protection Agency informed people that the airborne conditions were safe during the days after the attacks, but the results of Mount Sinai's study prove otherwise.

"Their air monitoring looked good, but we had sick patients. We're still following patients and still seeing high rates of respiratory problems. This problem is not over for that responder community," Levin said.

'BLAME THE VICTIM' FURY

http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/66328.htm

By SUSAN EDELMAN and CARL CAMPANILE
5/25/2006

2006 -- The city has four words for many World Trade Center recovery workers who have fallen ill: It's your own fault.

In court papers seeking to dismiss all lawsuits by the workers, the city argues it did all it could to protect them from toxic dust, smoke and rubble - but many ignored the safety rules.

Workers were required to wear respirators - fitted breathing devices with air filters - on and around the WTC pile, but some defiantly refused, the city contends in a brief filed in Manhattan federal court last week.

"On several occasions, OSHA [U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration] inspectors confronted firefighters who were not wearing their respirators and given resistance - the firefighters told OSHA that they would not comply and that OSHA had no authority over them," the brief says.

The city says its Department of Design and Construction, which led the cleanup, reported this to ranking FDNY officials to try to get firefighters to comply.

When the DDC found construction workers not wearing safety gear, supervisors contacted the contractor in an effort to "re-educate the employee," the brief says.

The city filed the brief in asking U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein to toss out all 5,000-plus claims by WTC responders, claiming blanket immunity because it was responding to a civil emergency and acting "in good faith."

The city acknowledges the WTC site was tainted with tons of asbestos and other pulverized toxins and carcinogens. But, it claims, many workers ignored or disobeyed signs posted around the site, and other reminders to wear protective gear.

The city's arguments outraged advocates and lawyers for the workers.

"It's sick that they're blaming the victim," said David Worby, who represents 8,000 workers in a class-action suit. "Most of the workers weren't given any safety protection. Others were given faulty equipment. It was too little, too late."

The class-action contends the city, in a rush to reopen Wall Street, did not have adequate safety protocols: "They never hosed down the workers. They never took their uniforms at the end of the day and gave them fresh ones. People were eating their lunch on the pile."

WTC responders illness worse than expected

http://www.rawstory.com/showarticle....news-headlines

BY RIDGELY OCHS
NEWSDAY STAFF WRITER
June 1, 2006

Doctors who treat World Trade Center responders say they are surprised almost five years later by the growing number seeking help for the first time -- 100 people a month in the biggest monitoring program -- and by the severity of illnesses among Sept. 11 workers already in treatment.

"There's no question there's continuing demand and many in the treatment program are quite ill," said Dr. Robin Herbert, codirector of the World Trade Center Worker and Volunteer Medical Screening Program at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan.

Herbert, whose program has examined about 15,000 responders since 2002, said doctors are finding "remarkable persistence" in breathing disorders such as chronic sinusitis and asthma, stomach ailments such as gastrointestinal reflux disease and psychological problems such as post traumatic stress disorder -- a suite of maladies one survivor called "my 9/11 plague."

Some patients also have come in with severe lung scarring, which can be fatal. And there have been cases of cancer, which worries experts, though they are unwilling to directly attribute them to exposure to Ground Zero toxins.

Doctors are also surprised by the numbers of new patients. Mount Sinai's screening program sees 100 new people a month, Herbert said. Despite adding more health care providers, Herbert said that for the last six months, the waiting list for treatment has grown to more than three months. "We honestly did not expect such ongoing demand," she said.

Dr. Ben Luft, program director for Long Island's World Trade Center monitoring program at Stony Brook University Hospital, which is following about 1,800 workers, said about 250 new workers from Long Island have come to the program in the past year.

"It's very surprising. Originally, we felt these are people who had an acute exposure and acute reaction, and we didn't think we were going to continue at this level for five years after exposure," said Luft, whose program, like Mount Sinai's, follows and treats Sept. 11 responders.

In some, he said, there appears to be "a period of latency" before symptoms develop. In others, symptoms have worsened over time, becoming bad enough to drive the person to seek help for the first time. "There's a chronic, progressive element to this," he said.

Herbert said she is also concerned about a small number of cases of lung scarring similar to that which killed Det. James Zadroga, 34, of Little Egg Harbor, N.J., in January. The coroner there found swirls in Zadroga's lungs caused by foreign material, which he linked to Ground Zero dust -- the first death to be officially tied to World Trade Center exposure.

"We're concerned because now we have a very small number of World Trade Center responders with much more serious lung scarring diseases," Herbert said.

Luft said he has also seen a handful of such cases.

Dr. David Prezant, chief medical officer in the Office of Medical Affairs in the New York City Fire Department at Montefiore Medical Center, said he also has seen some cases of lung scarring among the 14,000 fire fighters and emergency medical workers being monitored. He believes larger numbers of scarring cases and other diseases may show up in "another wave" decades from now.

Prezant coauthored a study published last month that showed the average lung function decline among fire fighters who were at Ground Zero one year after Sept. 11 was the equivalent of 12 years of aging.

World Trade Center workers are exchanging stories of cancers in colleagues -- especially of the blood, kidneys and pancreas -- they believe are the result of ingesting pulverized cement, glass fibers and other toxic substances at Ground Zero.

"We have a rough estimate of 200 to 300 people who are between the ages of 30 and 50 [with cancer]," said Jon Sferazo, 51, of Huntington Station, presiding officer of Unsung Heroes Helping Heroes, an advocacy group for Sept. 11 responders. "These cancers seem to be occurring in people far too young," he said.

Doctors are unwilling to link the cancer cases and exposure to Ground Zero toxins because it generally takes years for cancers to develop -- but they are tracking them closely. "We don't know if these are just normal, sporadic cases or if a pattern is developing. The methodology [in monitoring patients] has to be vigilant," Luft said.

Mental health problems, including depression and post traumatic stress disorder, are also not going away, experts said. As with new cases of physical ailments, health professionals are seeing new cases of psychological difficulties among people who previously hadn't sought help.

"What we're seeing is people coming forward for the first time," said Michael Arcari, the head of Faithful Response, a free mental health program for World Trade Center responders in North Bellmore.

Arcari, a former New York City Police Department lieutenant, said it is not unusual to see more people seeking help four to six years after a major trauma when their "coping mechanisms" start to falter. Since it began last year, his program has seen 130 people, the majority of whom are from Long Island.

"You start to see it in their personal lives and in their work performance," he said. "... A marriage is breaking up or something else is going on and their backs are up against a wall."

:mad:

Officials Begin Survey for 9/11 Registry

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...h/3921523.html

By AMY WESTFELDT
Associated Press Writer
6/1/2006

NEW YORK — City officials on Thursday launched a follow-up survey for thousands of people in a registry tracking post-Sept. 11 health problems, looking for proof of persistent respiratory and psychological illnesses in those who worked or lived near ground zero.

The World Trade Center Health Registry gathered initial information from 71,437 people who worked at ground zero or were in the area at the time of the attacks, making it the nation's largest such registry.

The program has come under criticism for failing to reach conclusions about post-Sept. 11 health effects sooner and for not providing information about treatment to survivors.

"We wish we had all of the answers. We wish we knew what the long-term health effects of 9/11 are," Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden said Thursday. "But we don't."

The new questionnaires ask for more details about the registrants' exposure and any update on their symptoms.

Officials have warned that it may take 20 years before doctors know what Sept. 11 did _ and did not do _ to the emergency personnel, civilians and others engulfed in the airborne remains of the two 110-story buildings.

A class-action lawsuit representing thousands of ailing workers and civilians blames Sept. 11 for their health problems, and two programs in the city are treating tens of thousands of rescue workers who say they developed sinusitis, cancers and other ailments after the attack.

In addition, a New Jersey medical examiner this year declared that the death of a retired city police detective who spent hours at the trade center site was "directly related to the 9/11 incident."

Frieden said that while registrants have reported respiratory problems, post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety, "what we don't know are how long the symptoms are going to persist."

He said it would take several months to gather the data and that a follow-up report could be completed by the end of the year.

AIR MASKS AT ISSUE IN CLAIMS OF 9/11 ILLNESSES

http://www.amhersttimes.com/index.ph...1775&Itemid=27

Written by ANTHONY DePALMA
Monday, 05 June 2006

With mounting evidence that exposure to the toxic smoke and ash at ground zero during the nine-month cleanup has made many people sick, attention is now focusing on the role of air-filtering masks, or respirators, that cost less than $50 and could have shielded workers from some of the toxins.

More than 150,000 such masks were distributed and only 40,000 people worked on the pile, but most workers either did not have the masks or did not use them.

These respirators are now at the center of a federal lawsuit filed on behalf of more than 8,000 firefighters, police officers and private workers who say they were exposed to toxic substances at or near ground zero that have made them sick or may eventually do so. While residents and office workers in the area also suffered ill effects, the work crews at the site who had the greatest exposure are thought to have sustained the greatest harm.

From legal documents presented in the case, a tale emerges of heroic but ineffective efforts to protect workers, with botched opportunities, confused policies and contradictions that failed to ensure their safety.

Lawyers representing the workers say that there was no central distribution point for the respirators, no single organization responsible for giving them out, and no one with the power to make sure the respirators that were distributed got used, and used properly.

By contrast, at the Pentagon, workers not wearing proper protective gear were escorted off the site.

"Employers are responsible for providing a safe workplace," said David Worby, the lawyer whose firm represents the workers. "But the majority of workers at ground zero were given nothing, or had masks that didn't work."

The allegations are based on the lawyers' review of more than 400,000 pages of official documents and the testimony of 30 government witnesses.

The city, which is the principal government defendant, has moved to have the lawsuit dismissed. It argues that it and the private contractors it hired to help in the cleanup did their best to provide adequate equipment and to get workers to use it, but many workers ignored the warnings. Many workers cited reasons for not keeping the masks on, like the stifling heat and the difficulty of communicating while wearing them.

Even if the response to an unprecedented emergency was flawed, the city's lawyers argue, a firmly established legal immunity under the State Defense Emergency Act and other laws protects New York from legal liability.

Kenneth A. Becker, head of the city's World Trade Center litigation unit, declined to comment on the charges in the complaint, saying it was "inappropriate to comment on pending litigation," beyond what is contained in documents already filed with the court. In those papers, the city argued that its "concern for the health and safety of all workers and volunteers at the W.T.C. site began immediately after the September 11 attacks and continued until the end of the rescue, recovery and debris removal operations."

Oral argument on the city's motion to dismiss the case is scheduled for June 22 before Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein of United States District Court in Manhattan.

Workplace Hazards
Ground zero was about the most dangerous workplace imaginable: a smoking heap of nearly two million tons of tangled steel and concrete that contained a brew of toxins, including asbestos, benzene, PCB's, and more than 400 chemicals. Indeed, recent health studies have found that many people who worked on the pile have since developed a rash of serious ailments, including gastrointestinal and respiratory problems.

In the chaos of the first 48 hours after the twin towers collapsed, only the city's firefighters had any personal protective equipment suitable for such an environment. But even that equipment was not sufficient.

Each firefighter is issued a full-face mask that is part of a Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus, also known as a Scott pack, which functions like scuba gear, supplying air while sealing out hazards.

But the tanks contain no more than 18 minutes of oxygen. The system works well if a firefighter is dashing into a burning building to rescue a baby. For a nine-month recovery operation, it was useless.

Once their Scott packs were exhausted, the first firefighters on the scene had no backup gear. That is why Firefighter Palmer Doyle and the crew from Engine Company 254 in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, stopped at a hardware store on the way into Manhattan on Sept. 11 to buy every paper dust mask in stock.

When he returned to ground zero with 50 other firefighters on a bus a few days later, Firefighter Doyle looked for respirators. He was told there was just one left for the entire crew. It was given to the youngest among them.

Firefighter Doyle, now 51 and retired with mild asthma, a recurring cough and other work-related problems, said that the firefighters never thought for a second of refusing to work without respirators, but they did wonder when they were going to be available. Records produced in the lawsuit indicate that the Fire Department put in an order with the city for 5,000 P100 Organic Vapor/Acid Gas half-face masks, which cost less than $50 each, and 10,000 replacement filter cartridges on Sept. 28. But the order was not processed for almost two months.

Such delays remain a sore point. "Firefighters worked during the 9/11 rescue operation with little or no respiratory protection, and anyone who claims differently is lying," said Stephen J. Cassidy, president of the Uniformed Firefighters Association. "The department further failed to supply anything but particle masks to its workers until much later."

In the first few days after Sept. 11, the only types of breathing protection generally available to people at ground zero were surgical masks and paper dust masks, often distributed by volunteers. Even Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and Deputy Mayor Rudy Washington, who has qualified for workers' compensation for Sept. 11-related ailments, wore paper masks at that time, although industrial safety officers say they were practically useless.

When private construction crews first arrived to help with debris removal, they had no air-filtering equipment with them because they do not usually work in such hazardous conditions.

"For the average Joe, there was nothing," said Robert Gray, a crane operator who is co-author of a new book about the cleanup called "Nine Months at Ground Zero" (Scribner, 2006). Mr. Gray said that after several days, the International Union of Operating Engineers, to which he belongs, brought in a trailer to provide half-face masks and testing to make sure they fit and functioned properly.

Outside the pile, most workers in the early days of the cleanup had only paper masks, and many of the laborers hired by cleaning contractors to vacuum the asbestos from buildings downtown had nothing at all. The New York Committee on Occupation Safety and Health, a union labor organization, provided checkups and respirators to more than 400 of these laborers, many of them illegal immigrants.

David M. Newman, an industrial hygienist with the labor committee, said that when federal environmental officials announced that it was safe for people to return to Lower Manhattan so that Wall Street could reopen a week after the towers collapsed, employers suddenly "had a green light to say, 'We don't need to use respirators because the E.P.A. says the air is OK.' "

He was referring to a statement made on Sept. 18, 2001, by Christie Whitman, the Environmental Protection Agency administrator, that air sampling done by her agency showed that the air was safe to breathe. The agency's inspector general concluded in 2003 that Ms. Whitman's statement was far too broad and could not be scientifically supported at the time she made it.

According to the inspector general's exhaustive recounting of the environmental consequences of Sept. 11, a federal emergency response team prepared a report on the day of the attacks recommending that respirators be used at ground zero.

But the report was never issued because it was decided that New York City, and not the federal government, should handle worker protection issues.

As the magnitude of the recovery operation grew clearer, attempts were made to bring order to the operation. On Sept. 20 the city issued its first safety plan, and it asked the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to take charge of distributing respirators. In what would become a controversial move, OSHA used its discretionary powers to decide not to enforce workplace safety regulations but to act in a supportive role that would not slow down operations.

"Given that the site was operating under emergency conditions, it was normal that we should suspend our enforcement action and assume the roles of consultation and technical assistance," Patricia Clark, OSHA regional administrator for New York, said in a 2003 OSHA publication.

OSHA placed emergency orders for tens of thousands of P100 half-face masks with replaceable filters. They cost from $25 to $50 at the time, and were certified to be effective protection against asbestos and most of the dust on the site.

But Mr. Worby, whose White Plains-based law firm, Worby Groner Edelman Napoli Bern, is handling the workers' joint action suit, said that even these masks were not adequate protection against the chemicals released by the collapsed buildings. He, and others, believe that ground zero should have been declared a toxic waste site, with workers required to wear hazardous-material suits.

Records produced in the lawsuit indicate that the city did receive 75,000 Tyvek suits, white protective overalls often used at hazardous waste sites, but never distributed them at ground zero.

Ms. Clark, the OSHA administrator, testified before Congress in October 2003 that the agency distributed 131,000 half-face respirators before the cleanup ended in June 2002, more than three times the number of workers on the site. In addition, the Environmental Protection Agency provided 22,000 respirators and the operating engineers' union distributed 11,000.

There has been no clear accounting of where they all went. But based on witness accounts and reports by safety officers at the site, it appears that most were used improperly and then discarded. OSHA's own regulations require that masks be tested for fit on each individual wearer, and that men with facial hair must shave for the masks to fit properly.

The lawsuit against the city claims that most of the masks were simply handed out, without instructions or testing for fit. "Respirator fit testing done around the World Trade Center was illusory at best," the lawsuit says.

A separate lawsuit filed on behalf of downtown residents and schoolchildren exposed to ground zero contamination is pending in federal district court in Manhattan.

Several health studies have shown that the closer people came to the debris pile in the early days and weeks after the twin towers collapsed, the more serious are the ailments they develop. A city registry of 71,000 people — including responders and residents — exposed to the dust showed that people who live downtown have developed respiratory and mental health problems. But they generally have not been as serious as those reported by people who worked directly on the pile.

OSHA refused to answer questions about its handling of the respirators. John M. Chavez, a spokesman, said lawyers from the Department of Justice's environmental torts branch, which is handling trade center litigation, advised against talking to reporters about respirators because "the question goes to the heart of the issue of the litigation."

End Part I

Going Without
After the masks arrived at ground zero, it soon became apparent that distributing them was easier than getting workers to wear them. At that time of passion and heroism, putting on any kind of respirator or mask was an expression of concern about personal safety — and for many that seemed selfish and unpatriotic in the midst of unimaginable disaster.

By contrast, more than 90 percent of the workers at the Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island, which was overseen by the Army Corps of Engineers, wore respirators.

There were other reasons for not wearing the respirators. Scorching temperatures on the pile made working in the masks unbearable. It was nearly impossible for the workers to communicate with each other with masks on, so they pulled them down and many later kept them off. The filters clogged easily in the thick, powdery dust, and replacements were not always readily available.

But perhaps the greatest impediments to compliance were the confusing guidelines and spotty enforcement efforts. Overseeing the work, and worker safety, was a horde of government entities that, at its peak, exceeded 30 city, state and federal agencies with overlapping jurisdictions and, at times, contradictory policies.

Statements from the E.P.A. about the air being safe contradicted respirator requirements. OSHA eventually established a green line, which it actually painted around the pile, and ordered respirators to be worn inside the green line. But in November 2001 the various government agencies and private contractors entered into a partnership: OSHA agreed not to issue fines or citations, and the contractors vowed to follow regulations.

The city, in its legal defense, says it issued advisories, distributed pamphlets and put up signs telling workers to wear respirators. But observers from unions and labor safety organizations, some using binoculars, found no more than half of the workers ever used their respirators. At times, no more than one in five workers were in compliance.

The compliance problem at ground zero was regularly brought up at daily safety committee hearings held by the city with other agencies and private contractors. But without strict enforcement, the situation never improved. Frustrated contractors doubted that anything short of "having workers' mother on site to admonish them to comply would be effective," according to records of one of the meetings cited in the legal documents.

Mr. Worby, the lawyer, says attempts to blame the workers for not wearing respirators go against the spirit of New York labor laws, which oblige employers to provide safe working environments. He argued that even if doing so was impractical in the first chaotic days after the attacks, rigorous standards could have been imposed in the many months that followed.

Lawyers for the injured workers are looking to recoup monetary damages for their pain, suffering, lost days and troubled nights.

The city and the 190 private companies named in the lawsuit, which was filed last year, say they did the best they could to balance safety with expediency. They point out that in nine months at ground zero, there was not one fatality.

But several recent health studies have shown that exposure to ground zero dust has caused serious respiratory and gastrointestinal problems in hundreds of people who worked at the site. Doctors have also started to notice an unusual number of lung-scarring diseases, especially among firefighters. So far there has been only one death officially linked to dust exposure, that of Detective James Zadroga, whose death early this year was attributed to lung scarring caused by the work he did at ground zero.

Both sides in the suit cast an uneasy eye on the future. The city clearly worries that if there is another attack it will not be able to hire contractors and respond to the emergency without fear of becoming entangled in legal liabilities, which could hamper its ability to restore order and protect the city.

In the same vein, the workers' representatives ask, if they are again called in to help, will the environmental and labor laws intended to protect them be enforced?

End

Program will focus on post-9/11 health problems

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?B...&PAG=461&rfi=9

By Kathryn Gill, Freeman staff
06/11/2006

NEW PALTZ - Deadly illnesses and other health problems that have arisen from the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks will be the focus of a free daylong conference Monday at SUNY New Paltz.

The conference begins at 10 a.m. in Room 100 of the campus Lecture Center. It is sponsored by SUNY and The Lower Manhattan Health Project.

Among the presenters will be Dr. Stephen M. Levin, director of the World Trade Center Medical Monitoring Program, and individuals who say they suffer from health problems they developed after the World Trade Center's twin towers were demolished by hijacked airplanes.

Donna Flayhan, a local resident and director of the Lower Manhattan Public Health Project, said the conference is "really important for the public to come to."

Flayhan said smoke and ash that emerged at ground zero during the nine-month cleanup of the site contained dangerous levels of asbestos and lead cadmium, as well as tiny pieces of glass, all of which have caused health problems and rescue workers, police officers and firefighters.

Though 150,000 respirator masks were distributed and only 40,000 people worked at the site, most either never received masks or didn't use them.

A federal lawsuit has been filed on behalf of the more than 8,000 individuals who claim to have gotten sick at ground zero. David Worby, a lawyer whose firm is representing the plaintiffs, will be among the speakers at Monday's event.

Flayhan says that even though almost five years have passed since the attacks, toxic dust still is circulating around ground zero, getting into ventilation systems and causing continued health problems. And she disputes assurance from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that the air near the Trade Center site is safe to breathe.

"The heroes of 9/11 are dying," she said.

The schedule for Monday's conference in as follows.

* 10 a.m. to noon: Dr. Stephen Levin, Diane Stein, Dr. Rebecca Bascom, Dr. Christine Oliver and David Worby.

* 1-3 p.m.: Documentary film "The Toxic Clouds of 9/11: A Looming Health Disaster," by Alison Johnson. (Johnson also made the documentary "Gulf War Syndrome: Aftermath of a Toxic Battlefield.")

* 3-4 p.m.: Rescue and recovery worker John Feal.

In the fall of 2005, SUNY New Paltz began offering a minor in Disaster Studies through the Institute for Disaster Mental Health. The minor focuses on training people to deal with natural, technological and manmade disasters and on how such events affect individuals, communities, organizations and the nation.

"The terrorist bombings in London, the hurricanes in Florida and the (April 2005) floods in Ulster and Orange counties remind us that disaster are not uncommon and can occur anywhere and any time," said James Halpern, director of the institute and professor of psychology at SUNY New Paltz.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Gold9472

The tragedy makes James Zadroga, 34, the first rescue worker to die from illness attributed to the Ground Zero rubble, a police spokesperson said yesterday.

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Thanks, I've read about him already.

Yes, he was a hero, yes, it is very tragic but he was hardly the first victim. maybe, the first clear-cut victim (i.e., if you take someone whose health was not as good as that of a twenty-something well trained cop it might be harder to say what they've died from). But the fact is, many of the rescue workers started to get really sick (cancers, etc.) within the first year or two after 9/11.