Health Concerns Prompt Call For ‘9/11 Health Czar’
Three Ground Zero-related Deaths Spur NY Representatives To Act
http://wcbstv.com/topstories/local_story_025060132.html
Marcia Kramer
1/25/2006
(CBS) NEW YORK Congressmen, union leaders and Ground Zero workers were at the World Trade Center site today demanding that the federal government deal with their health problems.
Members of New York's congressional delegation are calling for the establishment of a national "9/11 Health Czar" position. They want to coordinate the response to health problems suffered by thousands of workers at Ground Zero.
In the days immediately following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, more than 40,000 people rushed in to Ground Zero to help.
Firefighters, police officers, federal agents, construction workers and volunteers just wanted to pitch in any way they could. However, they were unaware that they were inhaling possibly poisonous air -- a potentially lethal cocktail of asbestos, lead, mercury, powdered glass and other carcinogens.
In the last six months, two emergency medical technicians and NYPD detective James Zadroga, 34, died of illnesses that may have been the result of their service at Ground Zero. Zadroga worked for hundreds of hours at Ground Zero after the attacks.
Officials say Zadroga developed black lung disease and mercury on the brain as a result of the exposure to dust and debris at the World Trade Center site.
According to congressional representatives Vito Fossella and Carolyn Maloney, thousands of other first responders already have been documented as becoming ill, but they are lacking a coordinated federal effort to get them the medical care they need.
"The number of deaths becomes a clarion call to do more and to do better," said Rep. Fossella (R-Staten Island, Brooklyn).
“Unbeknownst to them, many were inhaling [carcinogens]. Only now are we starting to see the potential deadly effects on some who worked at Ground Zero,” he said. “These are Americans who responded to a tragedy, and we need to help them."
Thousands of downtown residents were also exposed to the chemicals, and there is no telling what long-term effects they will experience.
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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