By AMY WESTFELDT, Associated Press Writer
Tue Jan 17, 6:24 PM ET
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 Sept. 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 Sept. 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 Sept. 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 Sept. 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
Sept. 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 Oct. 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 Sept. 11, Faeth said.
Zadroga, a 34-year-old New York detective, logged 470 hours at the site in 2001, including Sept. 11, and died Jan. 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.
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 Sept. 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 (news, bio, voting record), 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.BDx13 - 1-18-2006 at 01:48 PM
Hey, George, thanks for making the EPA tell us all the air was safe to breather. Really, thanks man. I'm sure James, Tim and Felix ESPECIALLY
appreciate it.clevohardcore - 1-18-2006 at 02:02 PM
this is sad sad news. Fucking rediculous. All the workers that will suffer from doing something good. It's terrible.RomanticViolence - 1-18-2006 at 02:30 PM
That is horroble...
that is all.gavin - 1-18-2006 at 02:37 PM
Quote:
Originally posted by RomanticViolence
That is horroble...
that is all.
defstarsteve - 1-18-2006 at 03:08 PM
not to be paranoid, but could there have been something else released into the air that day?
just something subtle that they don't want us to know about
and this is fucked....
that is allclevohardcore - 1-18-2006 at 04:56 PM
Quote:
Originally posted by defstarsteve
not to be paranoid, but could there have been something else released into the air that day?
just something subtle that they don't want us to know about
and this is fucked....
that is all
^^^^^^ um good call.thedog - 1-18-2006 at 05:03 PM
Quote:
Originally posted by RomanticViolence
That is horroble...
that is all.
tireironsaint - 1-18-2006 at 11:47 PM
Fucked.
Up.
Shit.GOLD GRILL - 1-19-2006 at 11:41 AM
concrete dust causes silicosis (sp?) I would have had a positive pressure breathing apparatus. It sucks, don't get me wrong, but people have known
this for years.BDx13 - 1-19-2006 at 01:40 PM
That's certainly true, Gabe, and anyone working around any kind of demolition should have sense enough to wear something over their nose and mouth.
But what's concerning to me is that in the weeks and months after the buildings came down, and once the major plumes smoke, ash and debris seemed to
be gone from the air, was it actually safe to breathe as the government said? Remeber, lower Manhattan was still smoldering come November.
We know people that lived in lower Manhattan and that we're displaced from their apartments for three to six months afterward, that have developed
problems simply from spending time in the area half a year later.
Residents of our neighborhood in Brooklyn were encouraged to sign up with the Department of Health for monitoring because even though we're across the
river, we're due east of lower Manhattan, and in the direct path that the wind took all of the smoke, debris, etc.
I dunno know, it's definitely scary, but like I said, the whole topic is still very upsetting for me.
