House Refuses to Help Sick, Dying 9/11 Heroes
Monday, August 2nd, 2010
Nearly a year ago I wrote about how the September 11 first responders and volunteers were getting sick from the toxic fumes they breathed at Ground Zero (see “The Toxins of 9/11“). Firefighters, policemen, and others who worked in the burning rubble of the World Trade Center, finding bodies and clearing debris, were breathing levels of benzene, dioxin, and other poisons that were way above the danger zone.
The collapse of the World Trade Center towers also released hundreds of tons of asbestos fibers into the air. Breathing asbestos can cause the deadly lung cancer mesothelioma. But the disease may not appear for 20 to 50 years after exposure, so workers and volunteers who are not sick yet are not out of danger.
Last week the House rejected a bill that would have provided medical support for the heroes of 9/11. The James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act would have provided medical monitoring of the former Ground Zero workers, medical care for those who needed it, and a fund to compensate for lost income when sickened workers could no longer hold a job. The bill was to be paid by closing a tax loophole on foreign companies with U.S. subsidiaries, so that it would not have added to the federal budget deficit.
But last Thursday night, the bill failed to pass. House Republicans decided to protect the profits of foreign companies, not the 9/11 heroes. A GOP policy statement dismissed the bill as a “massive new entitlement program.”
Nine years ago politicians were tripping over each other praising the heroes of 9/11. Now they say the heroes are greedy parasites wanting an “entitlement.”
Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) called the bill “a huge $8.4 billion slush fund paid by taxpayers that is open to abuse, fraud and waste.” As I explained, the bill would have been paid by closing a loophole on foreign companies doing business in the U.S., not by taxing U.S. citizens.
The bill was named for James Zadroga, a New York City policeman who died of respiratory illness attributed to the Ground Zero toxins. Zadroga was a healthy non-smoker in his early 30s on September 11, 2001. After the attacks he logged in 450 hours working at Ground Zero. Then he developed a persistent cough, grew weaker and weaker, and he died in 2006.
Today, James Fanelli of the New York Daily News reports that Ground Zero workers are refusing to sign a $625 million settlement with the City of New York. More than 10,000 firefighters, policement, and other Ground Zero workers had sued the city of New York, which had failed to provide adequate warnings and equipment for working in the toxic fumes. But many plaintiffs say the settlement isn’t enough. One retired NYPD officer said that the settlement would have provided him with only $4,700.
Approximately 50,000 people worked in the Ground Zero debris in the months following the September 11 attacks. Some came for just a few days, others worked there for several weeks. There is no way to anticipate the health problems these good people will face in the future.
In June 2009 the state of New York’s WTC Responder Fatalities Investigation had identified 817 people who worked at the WTC site who had since died. Of these, 479 died of illnesses, including 270 cases of cancer. There seems to be no official tally of the number of sick and dying, however.
