Its interesting that two things that you wouldn't normally put together have been discussed in the newspapers recently. In the sports sections of the newspapers, extensions have been announced for Sandy Alderson, the General Manager of the New York Mets and Hal Steinbrenner, owner of the New York Yankees, has announced they are negotiating an extension for Brian Cashman, their General Manager. At roughly the same time Newsday and other media outlets reported on 4 recent deaths of 9/11
responders dying of cancer and leukemia.
These first responders are just a few of the many thousands who are
covered under James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act which is set to
expire in 2016. Their deaths have led to
calls for an extension of the Zadroga Act.
Which is necessary to help deal with the 9/11-linked illnesses being
suffered by workers who worked on Ground Zero pile and were exposed to toxic
dust and fumes from the smoldering rubble.
These
firefighters are the latest to die since the September 11, 2001 attacks. As reported by Newsday, the current count is
92 members of the Uniformed Fire Officers Association have died and 875 have
been diagnosed with 9/11-linked illnesses.
Of those diagnosed, 80 member's illnesses are at critical stage and 177
are in remission. Another 280 members
are in the early stages of their illnesses and 25 are awaiting confirmation
that their illness is World Trade Center related.
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| September 11, 2001 attacks in New York City: View of the World Trade Center and the Statue of Liberty. (Image: US National Park Service ) (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
The Zadroga Act
has allowed the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
and others to study the effects of the toxic dust they were exposed to. A recent blog post by NIOSH, "WTC
Rescue/Recovery and Obstructive Airway Disease" discusses some of the
information gathered from reviewing the medical records of the first responders
such as:
- The increased incidence of respiratory disease such as obstructive airway diseases (OAD), such as asthma and chronic bronchitis have been associated with intensity of exposure as measured by arrival time at the WTC site.
- New onset OAD continues to be observed many years after exposure, contrary to conventional wisdom that irritant-induced asthma should be triggered within a relatively short time after exposure.
The above
information is only touching the surface especially considering some of the
other diseases we should be expecting, such as lung cancer and mesothelioma,
can take 30 years or more to develop.
Some of these diseases if caught early enough can be survivable, but only
with an excellent monitoring program. In addition, it
is our hope that this information will assist us in preventing first responders
from being exposed to these toxic situations in any future terrorist act or
environmental disaster. The enforcement
of the wearing of protective equipment including the use of proper respiratory
protection would prevent the need for future Zadroga Acts.
The need to
extend the Zadroga Act past 2016 is self-evident from the toxins these
responders were exposed. We hope
Congress recognizes this and passes legislation and funding needed to extend
the Act.
