Friday, November 03, 2006

Nun who says lung disease from 9/11 attack sickened her - dies

Associated Press

AIKEN, S.C. - A nun who says her lungs were permanently damaged after spending six months at Ground Zero following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks died Wednesday.Sister Cynthia Mahoney died at her Aiken home, according to Shellhouse Funeral Home. She was 54.

No cause of death was given, but Mahoney has said in several interviews that she thinks poisoned air where the World Trade Center towers fell gave her a deadly mix of asthma as well as pulmonary and digestive problems.

Mahoney asked results of her autopsy be used in a class action suit by Ground Zero workers who say the air around the site has sickened them.

Mahoney spent every day for six months after the attacks as a chaplain and an emergency medical technician.

"We are sick - physically and emotionally," Mahoney told The Oregonian in a 2004 story. "We cannot work because of health issues resulting from 9/11 rescue activity. We suffer from serious respiratory illnesses to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. And no one seems to realize this."

Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., said Mahoney's death should be more proof of how dangerous it was to work at Ground Zero."The death of Sister Mahoney is yet another tragic reminder that September 11 continues to take lives," Clinton said. "Her life and sacrifice embody the heroism that was so prevalent in the days and weeks after the attack."

Mahoney's funeral will be Saturday at Shellhouse Funeral Home's chapel in Aiken. A private burial will follow.

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