Re: And none of the survivors had any radiation poisoning afterwards! Astounding. They have certainly improved their methods since Chernobyl, haven't they, Doctor?
I see nobody clued you in on the "WTC cough"... The WTC cough is actually to 911 what the Gulf War Syndrome(*) was to the first Iraq War:
'Ground Zero' Clean-Up
Workers Get Ill, Sue
Three years after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks destroyed the World Trade Center, more than 800 workers who cleaned up the debris are sick--and suing.
In a class action suit filed Sept. 10 in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, the workers said the owner of the WTC and the four contractors who supervised the cleanup at "Ground Zero" knew the workers were exposed to hazards--and didn't protect them.
Those 800 workers may be just the tip of an iceberg of workers--many of them union workers--exposed to asbestos, toxic fumes, poisonous combinations of gases and hazardous liquids in either the cleanup of "The Pile" or in disposing of the WTC debris at a landfill on Staten Island.
A recent federal report calculated that 40,000 workers toiled at the two sites, and that 250,000-400,000 lower Manhattan residents were exposed to the danger. It added that many ailments from that exposure will not appear for years.
The Ironworkers, Laborers, Sheet Metal Workers, Operating Engineers and other building trades workers face the same ailments that the Fire Fighters suffered from cleaning up The Pile after the attacks. But there is no victims compensation fund for the building trades workers and others in the cleanup.
There is a fund for families of WTC victims, but it's not open for claims any more--and restricted who was eligible.
The suit cites a federal Government Accountability Office report released the week before and other evidence. That study says "screenings among other responders--carpenters, cleanup workers, heavy equipment operators, Ironworkers, mechanics, telecom technicians and truck drivers--have found respiratory health effects similar to those seen in FDNY Fire Fighters."
Besides the families of Fire Fighters and unionized police who lost loved ones in the terrorist attacks, the victims' fund was open "only to those rescue workers who were injured in the first 12 hours" working at "Ground Zero" and to those "non-rescue workers injured in the first 96 hours," court papers say.
That means the other workers who are now suing, and who became ill later, were left out in the cold, their lawyers say.
The workers who toiled for months at The Pile and in the landfill, sifting through the millions of tons of debris from the Twin Towers, now suffer asthma, sinusitis, constant coughing--what the Fire Fighters call "the WTC Cough"--constant nasal congestion, chest tightness, wheezing, shortness of breath and other ailments, the suit says.
And that doesn't count future illnesses, including cancer, that may develop due to exposure to the toxins, it adds.
"The tragic reality is that so many of the brave heroes who worked so tirelessly and unselfishly" at "The Pile" are now "becoming a second wave of casualties of this horrific attack," said their attorney, David Worby.
Not only did the contractors and the WTC owners fail to protect them, but the city also rushed to assure people that lower Manhattan was safe, when it was not, Worby added.
The Environmental Protection Agency's inspector general reported earlier that his agency, at Bush White House orders, prematurely declared the air in the WTC area safe to breathe without respirators or other protection.
The workers point to other evidence showing the WTC and the contractors broke labor law by exposing them to the hazards.
Their evidence includes 39-year-old police detective John Woloctt, previously in perfect health, forced to retire on a disability pension almost three years after working at the landfill. He suffers from a rare terminal cancer, acute myelogenous leukemia, which his doctors say comes from "exposure to...chemicals and radiation primarily found in airline fuel."
The use of airliners to destroy the WTC spewed airline fuel among the smoke and flames from the collapsing buildings.
Some 380 Fire Fighters who worked at The Pile--seeking first to rescue and then recover the remains of their 344 dead comrades--have since been forced to retire on disability. Three were diagnosed with thyroid cancer.
The GAO report, released in early September, adds tens of thousands of people were "exposed to a mixture of smoke, dust, debris and various chemicals" when the Twin Towers collapsed.
It also said monitoring programs for those who become ill are funded only through 2009. But "some long term effects, such as lung cancer, may not appear until several decades after a person has been exposed to a harmful agent" from work, it adds.
"The WTC responders not only experienced the traumatic event in person, but were exposed to a complex mixture of potentially toxic contaminants in the air and on the ground, such as pulverized concrete, fibrous glass, particulate matter and asbestos," GAO officials testified.
GAO said 7,250 injured people went to emergency rooms in New York City and nearby New Jersey in the two weeks after the attacks due to injuries suffered at the WTC, not counting those treated at on-site triage centers or those treated elsewhere.
Most of them suffered musculoskeletal injuries--fractures, sprains and crush injuries--burns, eye disorders, and inhalation injuries from fumes, GAO added.
And 90 percent of the 10,116 New York Fire Fighters who eventually worked at The Pile "reported an acute cough," GAO noted. Many of the 332 with "WTC cough" were forced to take at least four weeks' medical leave and "more than half showed only partial improvement" in their conditions, weeks later.
"In addition, FDNY reports that one firefighter who worked 16-hour days for 13 days and did not use respiratory protection during the first 7-10 days was diagnosed with a rare form of pneumonia that results from high dust exposure," GAO said.
In suing the WTC's owner and the contractors, the rescue workers cited the GAO testimony of a few days before.
The rescue workers sued on the last day possible under the statute of limitations. WTC's owner tried to get that case, and another one filed by several police officers exposed to the toxic fumes, to stay in federal court.
But a U.S. District Court judge said WTC did not prove it was acting under federal orders in denying protective gear to the workers. He sent the case back to state court, but let the WTC owner appeal the ruling to a higher federal court. Where the case will ultimately end up in the court system is unclear.
What is clear, Worby says on the workers' behalf, is that "proper respiratory gear would have allowed the workers to block out smoldering fires, dust, diesel exhaust, pulverized cement, glass fibers, asbestos and other chemicals in order to prevent developing throat and lung diseases."
As a result of directions from site cleanup managers, "Only about one in five of the workers wore respirators while they worked at the site," he added.
gmpiu.org
Did you notice how the coverup shrewdly omits "radioactivity" among the likely causes for the "WTC cough"? Here's the excerpt:
Those 800 workers may be just the tip of an iceberg of workers--many of them union workers--exposed to asbestos, toxic fumes, poisonous combinations of gases and hazardous liquids in either the cleanup of "The Pile" or in disposing of the WTC debris at a landfill on Staten Island.
(*) chiroweb.com |
