After
five years, doctors have
definitively established
a link between work at
Ground Zero and chronic
respiratory illness; a
study published last
fall by the largest
monitoring program for
post-9/11 workers found
that nearly 70 percent
were likely to have
lifelong breathing
problems.
But
experts have been slower
to officially link
deaths to the exposure,
saying it is easy to
misinterpret some
diseases, like cancer,
as being connected to
Ground Zero when other
factors may be at play.
So
far, two deaths have
been firmly connected to
exposure to the toxic
cloud that enveloped
lower Manhattan after
the twin towers
collapsed, killing
almost 3,000 people.
The
family of Felicia
Dunn-Jones, who died of
sarcoidosis – an
inflammation of the
lungs – a year after
escaping the twin
towers, was paid a $2.6
million death benefit by
Kenneth Feinberg, who
oversaw the compensation
fund for Sept. 11
victims.
And in
April, a New Jersey
medical examiner
concluded that the
January 2006 death of
retired police Detective
James Zadroga was
"directly related" to
his work at Ground Zero.
Mr.
Feinberg, who issued
more than 2,000 payments
to people sickened after
the attacks, said he
rejected many claims of
cancer.
"We
were not satisfied that
based on the medical
documentation submitted,
that the cancers would
have represented itself
so soon after 9/11," he
said.
But an
unofficial, anecdotal
death toll of post-Sept.
11 workers is rising
rapidly. In 2006, the
number of deaths tracked
by a lawyer suing the
city and contractors
overseeing the cleanup
of Ground Zero more than
quadrupled to 90 people,
up from 20, said
attorney David Worby.
The
plaintiffs, who all
worked at Ground Zero in
one form or another,
died of diseases now
familiar to the
thousands who are sick:
sarcoidosis,
mesothelioma and
pulmonary disease.
They
include Ms. Reeve, who
spent four months
working at the site and
at the city morgue; and
a nun, Sister Cynthia
Mahoney, 54, who served
as a chaplain for six
months at the site,
often blessing the
remains of the dead
pulled from the rubble.
Many
experts studying
post-Sept. 11 illness
say research hasn't
proved yet that all the
deaths are connected –
cancer, a leading cause
of death in the nation,
could be falsely linked
to WTC exposure, they
say.
Doctors at Mount Sinai
Medical Center, which
has screened 19,000 of
the believed 40,000
Ground Zero workers, say
they still need to rule
out cases of people
whose exposure simply
triggered an illness
they were already
predisposed to contract.
Last
fall, the National
Institute for
Occupational Safety and
Health scrapped autopsy
guidelines for the
nation's medical
examiners weeks after
drafting them. The
institute made the
decision after experts
said the guidelines
could lead to
misinterpretation and
false links to Ground
Zero deaths.
Sen.
Hillary Rodham Clinton
and other lawmakers
joined ailing recovery
workers at Ground Zero
recently to demand more
federal funding to treat
those workers with
chronic breathing
problems.
"We
have been given a slow,
slow death sentence, and
that's simply not
right," said Marvin
Bethea, a paramedic who
said he has suffered
everything from asthma
to post-traumatic stress
disorder after his work
at Ground Zero.
David
Reeve says it may take
decades to prove what
should be obvious right
now. His wife's primary
doctor, Reynaldo Alonso,
wrote a letter nine
months before his wife
died stating that Ms.
Reeve's only exposure to
asbestos and other
carcinogens came from
her work at the trade
center site.
"Why
do you have such a
disproportionate number
of people developing
cancer at an earlier
age?" he asked. "The
only thing these people
have in common is that
they were in southern
Manhattan on September
11, 2001. Now argue
that."
Amy
Westfeld, Associated
Press
PATIENT PROFILES
