9-11: The Human Toll Continues
Dust cloud from WTC explosion on 9-11-2001 approaches Chambers St.
On Wednesday, Cynthia A. Bascetta told the House Committee on Homeland Security that administrative screw-ups caused the HHS WTC Federal Responder Screening Program to stop scheduling exams from January - May of this year. From April 2006 to March 2007, the agency failed to schedule or pay for "specialty diagnostic services associated with screening." And the agency has not replied to GAO's July recommendations. (pdf)
I learned about the widespread and lingering effects of 9-11 from this month's Discover magazine.
First the people in the towers died. Then the rescue workers. Now first responders are succumbing to a 9/11 illness. The next victims: tens of thousands of ordinary citizens who worked and lived in Lower Manhattan—all of whom were told that the air was safe.
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Discover has released a package that focuses directly on this final group of 9/11 victims. The first part is a feature story on how the federal and city governments did not live up to their responsibility to protect the people in Lower Manhattan from air pollution. The second is an interview with Philip Landrigan, the doctor in charge of monitoring the far-reaching health effects of 9/11 on people in New York.
As this promo blurb implies, there is a lot more going on than HHS failing to provide health care to those responding to the WTC attack. The health -- physical and mental -- effects are real and have been widely documented. For example, GAO reports that New York firefighters "on average experienced a decline in lung function that would be equivalent to that which would be produced by 12 years of aging." And 59 percent of responders in one study were experiencing new or worsened respiratory symptoms -- 2.5 years after the tragedy.
The GAO report is on responders -- but Discover looks wider, at citizens who were told it was "safe" to go home. "Safe" to go back to work. "Safe" ... despite the fact that officials -- federal, state, city -- made those assertions based on proverbial thin air (emphasis added):
“The first indication I knew something was wrong was that by September 12 there was no evidence of or even consideration of organization,” says David Newman, an industrial hygienist with NYCOSH. Newman was consulting on environmental hazards at 9/11 from day one. “There was no health or safety plan at the site, and this is Safety 101.”
Asbestos was most likely in various construction materials used to build the World Trade Center, an EPA memo stated. It explained that short-term exposure to asbestos can cause respiratory, skin, or eye irritation. The information was dangerously incorrect.
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Stringent protocols govern asbestos contamination cleanup. After a specialized training period, health exam, and certification, licensed technicians must wear industrial-grade respirators and asbestos-resistant suits. New York City has a history of properly addressing asbestos contamination. Back in 1989, a relatively small steam pipe explosion on Gramercy Park South sent 200 pounds of asbestos blowing onto neighboring buildings. As a precaution, the entire building was covered in protective plastic sheeting, and city environmental officials complained that the cleanup would require more than four weeks of painstaking procedures for outdoor decontamination alone. More than 200 area tenants were displaced for weeks following the accident.
The World Trade Center had been, by some accounts, the largest fireproofing project in the world, with possibly 400 to 1,000 tons of asbestos, which was released during the collapse. Bureaucrats aired their assurances to the world.
Go buy the magazine -- it's a keeper. The articles are long, well-researched. And sobering.
And if you know anyone who lived or worked in Manhattan in September 2001, be sure to email them info about the Discover expose.