http://www.washtimes.com/national/20020113-93650984.htm

September 11 firefighters face respiratory problems

NEW YORK (AP) —

"..Many firefighters who raced to save victims of the September 11 World Trade Center attack are now facing their own health problems because of the contaminated air at the disaster site.
Some have asthma. Others have troubles ranging from a persistent cough to diminished lung capacity that can interfere with their physically demanding jobs. A few hundred are on medical leave or working light duty because of respiratory illness.
It's too soon to tell how many firefighters will be permanently disabled and forced to retire because of the respiratory problems, said Fire Department spokesman Frank Gribbon. But so far about 30 firefighters have started the retirement process because of the problems after working at the trade center disaster, which either caused their lung ailments or made prior ones worse, Mr. Gribbon said.

Apart from those with current symptoms, medical experts say some firefighters and other ground-zero workers may be at risk of developing cancer decades from now.
One attorney said he has filed legal documents on behalf of more than 700 firefighters with respiratory symptoms to preserve their right to sue the city later on.
Many firefighters who participated in the rescue effort are easily winded, suffer from chronic cough or have developed symptoms of asthma, said Tom Manley, health and safety officer for the Uniformed Firefighters Association.
Some on medical leave may not be able to return to their old jobs, he said.
"You can't be fighting fires with asthma," said Mr. Manley, a firefighter for 19 years. "Smoke irritates asthma severely. And when you climb stairs, you are shot by the time you get up there. You're going to be out of wind."

One fourth-generation firefighter, who worked at the trade center site 18 hours a day for the first three days after the disaster and then every other day for about a week, said his first signs of breathing trouble appeared about a month later.
He noticed he became easily winded when exercising or doing job-related activities like climbing tall ladders. "I knew there was something wrong," he said. "I was getting tired too quickly."
The man, who asked not to be identified because he thought his superiors would disapprove of his talking to the press, said he went to a Fire Department doctor for a checkup. The doctor gave him medicine, and the department put him on medical leave and told him to limit his exercise.

A few weeks ago, he started getting congested with a gritty phlegm. He said his doctor told him it was a sign his problem is clearing up. "I can live with that for now," he said.
But there's also the dry, raspy cough he has had since the first week after the disaster. "It's always there," although the severity comes and goes, he said. Once or twice a week "your lungs hurt from coughing; you get a pain in your back."
Mr. Manley, who was at the trade center when the towers collapsed, also continues to be nagged by the so-called World Trade Center cough.
"In the mornings it's heavy," he said. "It feels like a powder on the back of your throat."
Apart from the cough, "you can't take a deep breath sometimes," he said. He said he has been helped by an inhaler and medication. Mr. Gribbon said many firefighters with persistent coughs are on the job and improving with treatment.
Michael Barasch, the attorney who has filed the legal notices on behalf of firefighters, said one fireman who used to run marathons now finds he can't even carry his 3-year-old daughter up the stairs because of lung disease..."

http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/8669.htm

DOWNTOWNERS WORRIED SICK

By DAVID SEIFMAN and TODD VENEZIA

DRAINED BATTERY:
Battery Park resident Ilona Kloupte says she suffers physically and mentally since the World Trade Center tragedy.
- NYP: D. Halasy

January 12, 2002 --

"..A report released yesterday shows the attacks of Sept. 11 had a more profound effect on the residents of lower Manhattan than previously acknowledged by city officials.
The study, conducted seven weeks after the World Trade Center strike, found nearly 40 percent of people who live near ground zero reported symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.

From Oct. 25, 2001, to Nov. 1, 2001, probers from the city Health Department and the Centers for Disease Control went door to door in Battery Park City, Southbridge Towers and Independence Plaza, questioning more than 400 residents.

The data show many people displaying telltale symptoms of post-traumatic stress - including emotional numbness, depression, sleep loss, feelings of guilt, shaking and even seizures.

Meanwhile, nearly 50 percent of residents showed signs of physical distress - such as coughs, hives, eye irritation, runny noses - linked to the debris cloud and fires that burned for months after the collapse.

"Residents of lower Manhattan are worried about their health and safety," the study said. "The high proportion of the population experiencing symptoms likely to be related to respiratory irritants contributes to this concern.

"Second, the majority of households have not been cleaned according to recommendations, possibly increasing the exposure to respiratory irritants."

The 11-page report was dated Dec. 26, 2001, but wasn't released until yesterday. In December, Rudy Giuliani was mayor and Neal Cohen was the health commissioner, who, nearly every day, assured residents that the air downtown was safe.

The study was released to local civic groups at the end of December, officials said, but released to the press only yesterday.

It is not known if some of the report's findings are still accurate, including the findings that 40 percent of residents did not have their homes properly cleaned and that only 28 percent of those traumatized have sought counseling.

The report drew a strong reaction from City Councilman Alan Gerson, who represents lower Manhattan.

"It is serious, and it confirms everything I and other community and downtown elected officials have been screaming about for the last month," he said..."

PS: I've heard that they have now all kinds of stuff for Asthma and skin blemishes, too.

Anna*

-> I wonder where the 1-million-tons of rubble and the debris is now? - Was it really moved to the known landfilled at 'Fresh Kills' ? They said, the steel would be sent to smelters to be recycled, while concrete rubble would be buried. Never before so much at the time was a problem. Such a hauling job, this is a mammoth task but "nothing" was talked about in the mainstream media. Any idea? More lies and hidden association that would be the right for the public to know?

October 6th, 2001
=======================================================
Myriad Genetics, a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of therapeutic and diagnostic products using genomic and proteomic technologies,
is hired to analyse the DNA of the deceased victims of the World Trade Center.
They announce that they will finish this job maybe with the help of Craig Ventures company Celera, who has to analyse the mitochondries. Myriad has international partners worldwide:
Bayer, Eli Lily, Hitachi, Syngenta, Novartis, Pharmacia, Roche, Schering and Oracle/Hitachi (Map Human Proteine).
Celera has officially recognized the whole human DNA in 2000.

NOTE: Maybe you find out more about that, but please post the results in an own new topic. Thanks :)

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/ny-iework282436724oct29.story

The deaths of five workers when a scaffolding collapsed at a Manhattan office building Wednesday highlights the growing health and safety threats for immigrant workers in New York, as shown by new federal numbers showing a sharp jump in workplace deaths among immigrants last year.

All five of the workers who were killed and many of the 14 others who were injured were immigrants, believed to be from Mexico and Ecuador.

According to the recently released numbers from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 39 percent of all fatal occupational injuries in New York State last year (91 out of 233) involved immigrant workers, a jump of 11 percentage points from the previous year. For fatalities involving workers in New York City, the percentage was even higher: 74 out of 111, or 67 percent. Both numbers were record highs for the United States, and were considerably higher than the national average of 14 percent. The increase in the New York numbers came at the same time overall worker deaths declined in the state.

Workplace safety advocates said the numbers reflect that many immigrant workers, especially undocumented immigrants, take jobs in risky areas such as construction, where the lack of proper training can prove fatal.

"We're seeing a lot more day laborers like these who have been injured on the job," says Joann Lum, director of the National Mobilization against sweatshops, a Brooklyn-based organization helping immigrant workers. "Some unethical bosses using the World Trade Center disaster are even further exploiting them because they know that jobs are hard to get."

"The most dangerous and dirty jobs are being done by immigrant workers," explains Joel Shufro, executive director of New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health, a nonprofit group funded with government and outside grants. "I think the chances of this happening again will increase."

Immigrant workers often lack sufficient training for dangerous jobs such as climbing a 14-story building on scaffolding, says Dr. James Melius, director of the New York State Laborers Health and Safety Fund, which oversees the construction industry. "This is what happens if you don't have training," he said.

Shufro said he believes New York has the nation's highest rate of immigrants killed last year in the workplace in part because the state has not been vigilant enforcing safety standards and because of an unwillingness to prosecute employers guilty of maintaining unsafe work conditions leading to fatal accidents. He also points to reports that one of the workers in Wednesday's accident is 17 years old, an apparent violation of the state labor law.

"These same companies that don't do the right things with safety," explains Nancy Clark, safety expert at Mount Sinai's Center for Occupational and Environmental Medicine, "are the same companies who pick up these day laborers on a street corner and pay them only a few bucks an hour."

Government safety officials say they will examine the fatal scaffolding collapse as part of an ongoing review of dangers facing immigrant workers, especially those from Latin America, says Bonnie Friedman, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Occupational Safety & Health Administration.

The city of New York has decided to sell 175,000 tons of steel scrap from the World Trade Center, despite emotional appeals from relatives of some of the more than 2,800 people killed there on Sept. 11. Some of it is going to U.S. cities, but about 60,000 tons has been sold overseas, to companies in India, China and South Korea, where it will be turned into everything from appliances and bridges to car parts and even new skyscrapers. China's largest steel company, Shanghai Baosteel, has denied reports it plans to make souvenirs from the metal.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A25759-2002Feb17.html

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