Zero for Heroes

Many of the people who spent months in the pit at ground zero have respiratory ailments. And no health insurance. And no aid from the government. Why?
By Greg Sargent

David Rapp used to pride himself on being an active guy. A 250-pound construction worker, he drove piles on the Williamsburg Bridge and on projects all over the city. He could carry a sack of cement on his shoulder as easily as you carry an order of takeout sushi back to your desk. He liked fixing cars. He went crabbing in Jamaica Bay.
Then came September 11. Rapp spent several months at ground zero, drilling steel reinforcements into the “bathtub wall”—the slurry wall between the pit and the Hudson River that prevented the water from flooding the area.

Rapp’s illness began with a faint dizziness and shortness of breath, but it steadily got worse. Before long, he was useless to his former employers. They laid him off. Now Rapp is very, very sick. He’s suffering from severe pulmonary disease—meaning he never gets enough air. He has frequent respiratory infections. He’s on twelve medicines. He carries an oxygen tank wherever he goes. “I just went straight down,” Rapp says, his voice somewhere between a whisper and a rasp. “It’s real depressing.”

Rapp is one of perhaps thousands of people who are not cops or firefighters but who toiled at ground zero and are now sick, even disabled, from asthma, chronic infections, and other respiratory illnesses. These conditions, some experts maintain, were caused by the “crud”—the mixture of dust, ash, fumes from burning plastic, pulverized concrete, and vaporized human remains around ground zero.

http://newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/politics/columns/citypolitic/n_9384/

9/11 Ground Zero Volunteer Saves Asbestos-Laden Shirt

9/11 Ground Zero Volunteer Saves Asbestos-Laden Shirt
This ArticleAlso Appears In
Cancer / Oncology
Public Health

Main Category: Asthma / Respiratory NewsArticle Date: 14 Apr 2006 - 0:00am (PDT)The New York Post recently reported that a plain white dress shirt, worn by a volunteer who spent about 48 hours at Ground Zero immediately after the attacks, is laden with extremely high levels of asbestos. The shirt, belonging to community liaison Yehuda Kaploun, was stowed away by the volunteer in a plastic bag just a few days after the attack.

Kaploun originally saved the shirt to honor those who had perished in the attacks on the World Trade Center, including his friend Father Mychal Judge. Today, he hopes the findings as to the levels of contamination on the shirt will help 9/11 volunteers get help for the diseases they are likely to develop in the future, such as asbestos-related mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lungs.

Kaploun, at the time a 35-year-old liaison between the Police and Fire departments and the Orthodox Jewish community, as well as a part-time Hatzolah Ambulance volunteer, was told that the analyzed portions of his shirt collar revealed an extremely toxic concentration of chrysotile asbestos - 93,000 times higher than the average typically found in the environment in U.S. cities. That appears to be even higher than what the EPA said was found in the most contaminated building after 9/11, reports the Post.

The shirt was also found to be contaminated with zinc, mercury, antimony, barium, chromium, cobalt, copper, lead and molybdenum, which are just some of the heavy metals that burned in the fires that lasted for nearly four months after the attacks. In early April, the Centers for Disease Control reported that 62% of the individuals caught in the dust cloud of the fallen towers were suffering respiratory problems.

In addition, 46% of those who lived or worked in the area (but avoided the dust cloud) also reported consistent respiratory illnesses. Though these numbers are staggering, they are sure to worsen as many asbestos-related diseases, such as mesothelioma, take 10-40 years to surface. That means, in the next 5 to 10 years, New York City could be facing a serious health crisis.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=41603

Link Deaths of 3 Firemen, Cop To WTC site.

The Chief - News of the week. January 20, 2006
Health Officials Urge Screening, Offer Free Treatment
By GINGER ADAMS OTIS

The Uniformed Firefighters' Association announced Jan. 13 that two of its members and a Battalion Chief have died in recent months due to lung illnesses the union believes are linked to toxic exposures from Sept. 11 and its aftermath.

UFA Vice President James Slevin said the recent deaths of Firefighter Walter Voight, 55, Firefighter Stephen Johnson, 48, and Battalion Chief Joe Costello were unexpected and quick.
All three men were involved in either the initial response or rescue and clean-up efforts at Ground Zero. Firefighter Voight and Firefighter Johnson were among the many Fire Department members who retired a few years after 9/11. Both left the FDNY in good health, on normal service pensions. Battalion Chief Costello also died of lung-related disease. He left active service in 2005 on a disability pension and died this month, according to the union.

Two Emergency Medical Technicians, both non-smokers, died last year from respiratory-related diseases. EMT Timothy Keller, 41 and EMT Felix Hernandez, 31, responded to the World Trade Center on 9/11. Mr. Keller's autopsy listed the cause of death as a heart attack linked to respiratory distress. The details of Mr. Hernandez's death haven't been released by the family, but he was on medical leave from the Fire Department for a lung-related illness.

http://www.thechief-leader.com/news/2006/0120/News/004.html

A cop dies & kin blame 9/11 debris

New York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com
By ROBERT F. MOOREDAILY NEWS POLICE BUREAU Saturday, January 7th, 2006

A retired NYPD detective, who worked more than 450 hours at Ground Zero, died Thursday from brain and respiratory complications that his family insists were linked to the World Trade Center cleanup.

While autopsy results are pending, union officials maintain James Zadroga's death is the first post-9/11 death of a city officer linked to hazardous material from Ground Zero.

"Our detective is a hero," said Mike Palladino, president of the Detectives' Endowment Association. "He had a disregard for his own health and life and tried to save others."

Zadroga was inside 7 World Trade Center as it began to collapse on 9/11. He returned to the site for weeks to help search for victims' remains.

Palladino said he feared the deaths of more emergency workers could follow. "We're just starting to learn now the long-term effects on first responders," he said.

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. The six NYPD cops with brain cancer range in age from 33 to 49.

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.

Copyright 2004 NYP Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved.

FDNY EMS Paramedic Succumbs to Post 9/11 Cancer

A funeral will take place Monday, March 20 for FDNY EMS Paramedic Deborah Reeve, who died Wednesday of a rare lung cancer that her doctor and family attribute to her work at Ground Zero after 9/11.

Reeve spent several months at the Ground Zero morgue sorting debris and body parts. She started to get sick in late 2003, suffering breathing problems and chest pain, and was diagnosed with mesothelioma, said Marianne Pizzitola, benefit and pension coordinator for Local 3621.

She was 41 years old, and is survived by her husband David, also an FDNY EMS paramedic, and their children, Elizabeth, 10, and Mark, 6. Reeve was the first female to die post 9/11 of a 9/11 injury, and the first Ground Zero worker to be awarded a disability pension from the state retirement system under a bill signed by New York Gov. George Pataki last year, but she died before seeing payment.

http://www.emsresponder.com/article/...tion=1&id=3110
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My part

I think everyone who's ever worked for the city would agree that 9/11 was the worst job ever.
After everything stopped falling, everyone there went to work. No one really payed much attention to what was flying around us in the air. We worked for days, then the days became weeks and some of us stretched those weeks into months.
Whenever it was that you finally left, the next thing you did is move on. I've heard people say that there is something noble in this - but there isn't. Its a lack of options. You took the job to help people and you don't stop because you had a really bad day. So little by little you go back to what you were doing on 9/10.
Then one day you wake up and feel sick as hell. Or maybe its something you realize that you've been feeling for a while. For me it was a stomach thing. Something I ignored for about a week, thinking that it would pass. Something I eventually figured needed medical attention and went to the ER to have looked at. Something that would have me in the hospital for the next 5 and a half months and still be with me today.
For me this somthing has a name - chronic pancreatitis, and it has changed almost every aspect of my life. For a while the doctors thought I was a chronic drunk. For a time they thought I was an addict. They figured that by removing my gallbladder it would go away. They were all wrong. They finally figured out that whatever I inhaled at the trade center caused this - and it was never going to go away. I remember my GI doctor standing at my bedside one night telling me that if I survived this I would spend every day of the rest of my life in pain. No thanks. Once again I considered my recovery a lack of options.
I've proved the doctors wrong, its taken work and dedication. I've had to change my life in drastic ways. I've been forced from the job I love, my diet and lifestyle have become what most people would consider "restricted". But I still feel like I've been given a second chance.

My part 2

The questions is 'what do I do with my second chance'? Well so far I've gone back to school to study to be a Physician Assistant, and after meeting Mike and putting our heads together - I've put my efforts to into raising awareness and money to fight mesothelomia.
Like most people before taking this on, my knowledge of this disease was that it was something that was mainly connected with miners. But like most things in life, as soon as you think your fairly safe from something - it usually bites you in the ass.
Quite simply, mesothelomia stands a chance of bitting us because asbestos exposure causes mesothelomia. Hundreds of tons of it was pulverized and released when those towers came down. Mesothelomia also has the distinction of being very hard to detect in its early stages, and by the time it is detectable - your done.
So being the student I am I added it all up: thousands of people + exposure to lots of asbestos + a disease that's very hard to pick up and is extremly lethal = we need to do something.
Next equation I plotted out was: the need for better ways of detecting this disease earlier + more treatment options for patients in all stages of the disease = research and development.
Final formula: raising awareness + raising money + non profit foundation designated to erradicate mesothelomia = the resources needed to mount a meaningfull attack on something deadly BEFORE its too late.

Joe