The Columbus Dispatch (Ohio)
Copyright 2006 The Columbus Dispatch
All Rights Reserved
When America needed them, they didn’t hesitate. Now, they are in need, and America is letting them down.
About 40,000 people — law-enforcement officers, firefighters, transit workers and others, many of whom were volunteers — converged on southern Manhattan five years ago to help in the rescue and recovery efforts after the attack on the World Trade Center. A study by Mount Sinai Medical Center shows 70 percent of those workers have respiratory problems. That agrees with the results of previous studies.
This shouldn’t be surprising. Lower Manhattan was a toxic fog in the days after 9/11, with pulverized glass, concrete and asbestos floating in the air, along with smoke that contained a laundry list of carcinogenic chemicals.
In the months that followed, the Environmental Protection Agency, this nation’s protector of human health and the environment, conducted thousands of tests on the New York air and water and proclaimed both to be safe. Other tests, which were not released until the New York Environmental Law and Justice Project requested them under the Freedom of Information Act, found elevated levels of dioxin, chromium, lead, benzene and PCBs, The Washington Post reported in January 2002. Still other tests found high levels of asbestos.
The EPA’s inspector general issued a report in 2003 that said the agency was directed by White House officials to mislead the public regarding the dangers of breathing the New York air after 9/11.
The report said the EPA was told to “add reassuring statements and delete cautionary ones” about the air quality.
As a result, many workers at Ground Zero did not take the proper precautions as they sifted through the smoldering rubble, looking for survivors and bodies. Those workers are paying a price for their bravery.
Of the nearly 10,000 sick workers surveyed by Mount Sinai, 40 percent have no health insurance. Some were uninsured on 9/11. Others lost their insurance when their illnesses made it impossible for them to work.
Regardless of their situations, they are unable to afford proper health care.
These people did not ask, “What’s in it for me?” They saw that a job needed to be done, and they did it at great personal risk.
America has a duty to provide medical care for these selfless people. The federal government appropriated $52 million last year for treatment, but Dr. John Howard, the federal 9/11 health coordinator, acknowledged that this amount is inadequate. He is hopeful that the Mount Sinai study will bolster his case for more money.
The study focused on respiratory problems. A study on the mental health of 9/11 workers is to be released soon, and a study of cancer and other ailments is planned. The need for care seems likely to grow.
Howard told The New York Times that the government’s actions and inactions may have damaged the workers’ trust in government.
The Times story also said that no staff members in Howard’s office are assigned to work full time on health cases for 9/11 workers. New York City released clinical guidelines to aid in diagnoses of 9/11-related illnesses only last week, after years of urging by medical experts.
If this is how America treats its heroes, who will answer the call next time?