9/11 and Cancer
In late August, a New Jersey woman named Marcy Borders became one of the 8 million individuals worldwide to die from cancer each year. Borders was best known for standing among the rubble after the World Trade Center collapsed on September 11, an image that eventually landed her the nickname Dust Lady . The mass of grey dust covering her body from head to toecovering, even, the string of pearls around her neckcatapulted Borders to instant recognition.
It was also, just maybe, what ultimately killed her.
After the Twin Towers fell, a layer of dust and debris coated Manhattan. Hidden among that cloudy air, inhaled by survivors and first responders alike, were carcinogenic particles and chemicalsasbestos, fiberglass, mercury, and benzene, among others. The Natural Resources Defense Council estimates that 300 to 400 tons of asbestos fibers were used to construct the World Trade Center.
Still, just a week after the attack, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency told the public there was no long-term danger to their health. I am glad to reassure the people of New York and Washington, D.C., that their air is safe to breath[e], EPA Administrator Christie Whitman said at the time . But then people began to fall ill.
In 2002, Dr. David Prezant of the New York City Fire Department, a pulmonary disease specialist, coined the term World Trade Center cough after 9/11 firefighters started to develop chronic respiratory illnesses. From 2001 to 2004, the federal government established a Victim Compensation Fund for all those physically harmed or killed as a result of the tragedy. In 2011, 10 years after the attacks, Congress reactivated the fund via the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act named after an NYPD officer and first responder who died of respiratory diseasein addition to establishing a new World Trade Center Health Program. Two years later, officials finally added 50 different types of cancer to the list of diseases eligible for compensation.
The WTC Health Program is set to expire next month, and the Victim Compensation Fund is set to expire in October 2016, unless Congress decides to pledge more money . Not only would an end to funding mean an end to 9/11-related cancer treatment and compensation, but it would discontinue research as welljust as scientists and doctors are on the verge of finding a definitive empirical link between the incident and the illness.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/14-years-later-heres-what-we-know-about-9-11-and-cancer/ar-AAe9dxU?li=AAa0dzB&ocid=U305DHP
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I hope that congress does the right thing and funds the project. This is vitally important.
Good to hear that your family that were exposed to it are cancer free ambiv.
I don't feel that this congress will do anything that I would consider to be "right". Funding a program that really helps people isn't high on their agenda...
Ambi, I truly hope that your daughter and her family remain healthy, despite having had exposure to the dust!
GOOD! I'm sure they are happier there, too!
I was turning the corner onto Vesey Street from Broadway when I saw the 1st plane half way through the building. This moment is frozen in time in my memory. What isn't is the weeks I coughed up black garbage.
You want to know why theVictim Compensation Fund is set to expire? After the lie was told that the air was fine (they all knew it wasn't), this study would lead them to endlesslawsuits.
I knew 2 firemen and 2 police officers all who have some sort of autoimmune diseases and one with cancer, too. I know a fireman who died a while back. All were first responders. If I was coughing up black stuff for weeks after a day there, what did their lungs look like?
Ambi, I have a very hard time discussing this topic, especially today. I don't turn on the TV. I try not to think about it. So sorry if I sound pissy here.
Glad your daughter is still fine. My cousin and childhood friend and my lawyer are all still fine, too.
Every day at work I receive a compilation of all New York State Law Enforcement Deaths in the Line of Duty based on that day throughout history (Called 'End of Watch'). More and more of them, cause of death is listed as 19 Hijackers and breathing in the dust over the course of hours, days and weeks after the collapses while working at Ground Zero-all of those are cancer related deaths.
Congress needs to continue funding research as well as compensation. They also should make a concerted effort to hit Saudi Arabia up for compensation as well. Now I'm veering into the realm of fantasy...
From today's report:
Inspector XXXXX YYYYY died from illnesses he contracted while inhaling toxic materials as he participated in the rescue and recovery efforts at the World Trade Center site following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.
InspectorYYYYY had responded to the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 and commanded a unit that was instrumental in helping emergency vehicles pass and civilians escape. He was nearly killed when his vehicle was crushed as one of the towers fell.
Following the attack, InspectorYYYYY spent many hours at the Ground Zero site as part of the rescue effort. InspectorYYYYY had served with the New York City Police Department for 37 years and was the Commanding Officer of the Manhattan Traffic Task Force.
This is grim.
Ambi, I hope your daughter and grandkid remain safe.
Keep this program alive.
Or anything that would drive us farther into the ground with debt.
Good Lord, Perrie. What a piece of material for dreams in the dark of night. Have you been checked for lung damage? I'm thinking you need a scan.
There are 2 historical events during which you are expected to recall where you are when they happened : The assassination of JFK and 9/11 . I can only say how fortunate I feel to have not been in the NY area when the latter occurred .
Lawmakers know how to get around this problem -- if they wish to do so... They did it for gun manufacturers.
All they have to do is create a serious compensation fund, make access easy to ensure that 9/11 victims get coverage (even at the risk of a few cheats), and in exchange, block all lawsuits.
I "pre-retired" at 62 as an "asbestos victim". (I could have done so ten years earlier, but I was making too much money to want to change regimes!)
Fifteen years earlier, I had worked in a company that used asbestos, and that is all that is needed to get that "asbestos victim" status. Personally, I only had occasional and fairly distant contact with the work position where the asbestos was actually used, but TPTB decided very early to evacuate all litigation by making the rules very open. At 65, I left the "asbestos" category, and took up my actual retirement conditions.
The idea behind this system was to recognize that asbestos workers might very likely never reach "retirement" age, and to give them the opportunity to "relax" in time to have a few years before the silicosis (or whatever) killed them...
The question is simple: Is there a will to reward the heroes?
89 is a pretty good score...
My Dad was pretty sharp through 93... and then went downhill pretty fast, to leave us a year later. He didn't complain: he knew he had had a pretty good roll.
Oh, no! South Dakota born, died in Boston, near my sister's home.
I'm the expat -- my asbestos story is French. I worked in a company that built semi-trailers, including putting asbestos brake pads on a lathe to "run them in".
Oh yes!
We live in Calais, the French side of the Channel Tunnel, and one of the busiest ferry ports in Europe. Because the UK is seen as an Eldorado by many migrants, we have some six thousand migrants living in tent cities in the woods, hoping to snag a ride across the Channel. (Calais is a town of 40 000.)
TPTB have found nothing better than to put up razor-wire fences. Which can be bypassed. Which cannot survivevery ordinary bolt-cutters...
I suspect that the government is stonewalling, waiting for something violent to happen, to justify harsh action. But there have been almost no incidents between locals and migrants. Among the migrants, though, where there is literally no law, violence is building
And it is super-scary to drive on any of the several four-lanes we have here. One Saturday, we came upon thirty or forty migrants -- Black men dressed in black in a black night -- crossing the highway on foot. Very very scary at 60 mph.