WTC responder to tell story at conference
Hoping to bring attention to the health crisis facing 9/11's first responders, an Elmont man suffering with lung disease has teamed up with a forensic analyst who specializes in cold cases of terrorism and government misconduct to organize a conference in New Jersey on Nov. 21.
At the New Jersey Expo Center in Edison on Tuesday, Vito Valenti will join physicians who monitor the 9/11 responders, along with Congressional members from the U.S. House of Representatives, state senators, attorney's representing the first responders, members of 9/11 foundations and rescue and recovery workers to discuss how his health has been affected since working at ground zero.
Valenti, a union worker for Local 372 (Board of Education employees), has pulmonary fibrosis - scarring of the lungs - which, without a double lung transplant, is fatal. Valenti has no health insurance. It ran out before he completed a series of tests that would have put him on the lung transplant list.
His financial ills, at least in the short term, would be helped by the World Trade Center Disability Pension, which would give him access to the care he needs. In order to meet the qualifications for the pension, public employees must have worked at least 40 hours at ground zero. Valenti said he worked for two straight days, which should make him more than eligible. But union officials told him they could not prove he spent 40 hours there, because he and union Vice President Santos Crespo, the only coworker with him at ground zero, were separated and there is no official documentation of Valenti's service.
"I'm not the only one, there are others," Valenti said. "And our stories have to be told."
Clemente said the key to helping first responders who, like Valenti, have developed illnesses as a result of working at ground zero and have no health care, is to draw attention to what she said is a growing crisis.
"We will not tolerate this nor do we have time to delay assistance to those who need help this conference is a professional forum to explain those areas that are failing our 9/11 responders, the current health crisis, immediate needs, and legislation that could assist them," Clemente wrote in a letter.
Many city workers who got sick after working at ground zero are eligible for three-quarter-pay pensions under the 9/11 pension legislation, which was enacted in 2005.
Though the law recognizes that workers' conditions were caused by exposure to the toxic air at ground zero, Valenti failed to meet the criteria. He did not take part in the city retirement system before the World Trade Center attacks, which may leave him ineligible for the 9/11 disability pension.
At the New Jersey Expo Center in Edison on Tuesday, Vito Valenti will join physicians who monitor the 9/11 responders, along with Congressional members from the U.S. House of Representatives, state senators, attorney's representing the first responders, members of 9/11 foundations and rescue and recovery workers to discuss how his health has been affected since working at ground zero.
Valenti, a union worker for Local 372 (Board of Education employees), has pulmonary fibrosis - scarring of the lungs - which, without a double lung transplant, is fatal. Valenti has no health insurance. It ran out before he completed a series of tests that would have put him on the lung transplant list.
His financial ills, at least in the short term, would be helped by the World Trade Center Disability Pension, which would give him access to the care he needs. In order to meet the qualifications for the pension, public employees must have worked at least 40 hours at ground zero. Valenti said he worked for two straight days, which should make him more than eligible. But union officials told him they could not prove he spent 40 hours there, because he and union Vice President Santos Crespo, the only coworker with him at ground zero, were separated and there is no official documentation of Valenti's service.
"I'm not the only one, there are others," Valenti said. "And our stories have to be told."
Clemente said the key to helping first responders who, like Valenti, have developed illnesses as a result of working at ground zero and have no health care, is to draw attention to what she said is a growing crisis.
"We will not tolerate this nor do we have time to delay assistance to those who need help this conference is a professional forum to explain those areas that are failing our 9/11 responders, the current health crisis, immediate needs, and legislation that could assist them," Clemente wrote in a letter.
Many city workers who got sick after working at ground zero are eligible for three-quarter-pay pensions under the 9/11 pension legislation, which was enacted in 2005.
Though the law recognizes that workers' conditions were caused by exposure to the toxic air at ground zero, Valenti failed to meet the criteria. He did not take part in the city retirement system before the World Trade Center attacks, which may leave him ineligible for the 9/11 disability pension.
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