BBC News - Problems mount from 9/11 fallout

[Andrew Johnson]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4904188.stm

Problems mount from 9/11 fallout
By David Shukman
BBC science correspondent



The number of people with medical problems linked to the 9/11 attacks on New York has risen to at least 15,000.

The figure, put together for the BBC, counts those receiving treatment for problems related to breathing in dust.

Many of the victims say the government offered false reassurances that the Manhattan air was safe and are now pursuing a class-action lawsuit.

On Tuesday, a coroner said the death of a policeman who developed a respiratory disease was "directly linked" to 9/11.

James Zadroga - who worked at Ground Zero - died in January. The New Jersey coroner's ruling was the first of its kind.

WTC 'cough'

Jeff Endean used to be the macho leader of a police Swat firearms team. Now, he has trouble breathing and survives on the cocktail of drugs he takes every day.

Kelly Colangelo, an IT specialist, used to have good health but now endures a range of problems including asthma and sinus pain.

"It worried me that I've been damaging my health just being in my home," she told the BBC News website. "It also worries me that I see the health impact on the [the emergency crews at the scene]. We were also exposed and I wonder if in 10-15 years from now, am I going to be another victim?"

Both are victims of what used to be called "World Trade Center cough", an innocuous sounding condition that many thought would pass once the dust that rose from the attacks of 9/11 had blown away.

But the medical problems have not merely intensified; the list of victims has grown alarmingly at the same time.

The apparent cause? The long line of contaminants carried by the dust into the lungs of many of those at, or near, the scene on that fateful day.

'Real' figure

One list of sufferers has been compiled at the Mount Sinai Medical Center. Its World Trade Center Screening Programme has 16,000 people on its books, of whom about half - 8,000 - require treatment.


Workers were allowed back into lower Manhattan soon afterwards
A further 7,000 firefighters are recorded as having a wide range of medical problems, producing a total of 15,000. But the overall numbers affected could easily be far higher.

As the US government's newly appointed "health czar" John Howard confirmed to the BBC, there were between 30,000 and 50,000 people at or near Ground Zero who might have been exposed to the hazardous dust and no one really knows how many are suffering problems now.

Consisting of billions of microscopic particles, the dust was especially toxic because of its contents.

A grim list includes lead from 50,000 computers, asbestos from the twin towers' structures and dangerously high levels of alkalinity from the concrete.

Long time

Many of the people now suffering were sent to Ground Zero to help search for survivors. Others volunteered. Still more just happened to be living or working in the area.

The latter feel particularly aggrieved, even betrayed.

In the days following the attacks, the head of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) declared that monitoring operations had proved the "air was safe to breathe". And with that reassurance, the authorities reopened the globally important financial hub of Wall Street.

At the time it was seen as a critical morale-booster to a wounded nation.

Yet now the federal courts have allowed a class-action lawsuit to be filed against those very authorities.

Last month, a judge described the EPA's reassurances as "misleading" and "shocking the conscience". The legal process could last years.

A special report on the dust fallout from the 9/11 attacks will be featured on BBC World starting on Wednesday 3 May at 1930 GMT. The documentary will also be carried on BBC News 24.

[brian]

Six 9/11 Police Officers Have Brain Cancer

NY Post (April 9, 2006)

An alarming number of 9/11 responders have been stricken with brain cancer - including six NYPD cops, The Post has learned.

At least 11 of the Ground Zero rescue and recovery workers and their families claim in a class-action lawsuit - which includes dozens of other cancer victims - that toxic air and dust caused or triggered the rare, often fatal, brain illness.


Three brain-cancer victims have died, raising the total death toll in a 7,300-plaintiff lawsuit brought by workers and their families to 41, said lead attorney David Worby.

They include Stephen "Rak" Yurek, 46, a Port Authority emergency technician from Bayonne, N.J., who died Dec. 11 after a 16-month illness. He left behind a wife and four children ages 10 to 25.

His widow, Mary Ellen, said he was healthy before his 2004 diagnosis.

"He was never sick a day in his life," she told The Post.

The six NYPD cops with brain cancer range in age from 33 to 49. A 40-year-old cop died in June 2004, after going blind and suffering sinus cancer that spread to his brain, said lawyer Worby.

PBA President Patrick Lynch said the cases confirm his fears about the dangerous conditions at the World Trade Center site.

"We can only imagine their impact on the fragile chemistry of human life," he said. "There is a great deal of sickness and death from that event that is yet to be seen."

Other brain-cancer victims include an FDNY fireman, 55, a female Red Cross social worker, 58, a male Tischman construction worker, 40, a male city transportation worker, 48, and a male city environmental protection worker, 49, Worby said.

"The toxins at the World Trade Center compromised the immune systems and led to a rapid spread of cancer, including to the brain," Worby alleges.

http://fe.pennnet.com/News/Display_News_Story.cfm?

[ian neal]

Related lawsuit story

http://www.ww4report.com/node/1515

[Pikey]

The fire protection system used for the structural frame was asbestos boarding. All that asbestos dust in the atmosphere! The whole area should have been evacuated and sealed off for weeks.

At the Jimmy Walters roadshow in Manchester last year a personal account was provided by a young lady whose health had suffered following the collapse of the buildings.

The inactions of the authorities.........absolutely criminal!

Peace & truth

[Andrew Johnson]

I guessed at the reporter's e-mail address: David.Shukman@bbc.co.uk - I sent him this, and it didn't get bounced....
===============

Dear Mr Shuckman,

I just read this article as posted on the BBC News Website. Now that the potential number of injured people from the events of 9/11 has risen to perhaps 20,000, it is now time for a serious re-examination of what really happened on 9/11 to be shown by the BBC.

I am a member of a group called Scholars for 9/11 Truth (www.st911.org). I believed the official story of 9-11 for about 3 years, but since then, I have been campaigning for the truth to be presented by the media. Recently, I have been in contact, along with several members of our British 9/11 Truth Campaign forum (www.nineleven.co.uk), with BBC news director Helen Boaden, in requesting that the formation of our Scholar's Group is appropriately covered by the BBC. Despite the very strong scientific evidence that our group presents (which amounts to proof in my opinion) that WTC 7, 1 & 2 underwent controlled demolition, our position has been ignored and marginalized, to the point where I am now forced to investigate the possibility of prosecuting the BBC for being in breach of its charter (letters and responses are posted on our forum here http://www.nineeleven.co.uk/board/viewtopic.php?t=903 and here http://www.nineeleven.co.uk/board/viewtopic.php?t=1355).

The publication of your report now increases the sense of urgency for the truth about 9/11 to be properly presented to the UK public. Can you help? (Think - how can a few small fires cause the symmetric 6.5 second collapse and pulverisation of a 47-storey steel-framed building? NIST still have not issued their final report for WTC 7 and have now put the work out to tender. Why?) Please check and verify the validity of these statements and then decide how to act.

Yours Sincerely,

Andrew Johnson
22 Mear Drive
Borrowash
Derbyshire
DE72 3QW