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Aug. 2003
Sept. 2003
Aug. 2004
Nov. 2004
Jan. 2006
March 2006
July 2006
Aug. 2006
Sept. 2006
Sept. 15, 2006:
Senate Republicans to 9/11 rescue workers: Drop dead| |
Comment: A paltry $5,800 per year for sickened first responders — and Republicans say it's too much.
Have I told you lately how much I hate these tight-fisted ice-hearted soul-deprived Republicans? Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
Sept. 6, 2006:
70% of 9/11 rescue workers have respiratory problems| |
Excerpt: Five years after Sept. 11, seven out of 10 first responders and workers who toiled at Ground Zero suffer from chronic lung ailments that probably will be lifelong, doctors said yesterday in announcing the largest-ever study of 9/11 health effects... Doctors at Mount Sinai also said they expect to find cancer among the study's participants in coming years.
Comment: It would be an appropriate gesture, commemorating five years since September 11, 2001, to finally, finally take care of the rescue workers.
Appropriate, but unlikely.
The Bush-Cheney administration uses the rescue workers' heroism for photo ops and propaganda, but when it comes to the heroes' health, White House policy is, You're screwed. Helen & Harry Highwater PERMANENT LINK |
Aug. 13, 2006:
Dying nun wants her body autopsied to prove 9/11 toxicity killed her
July 28, 2006:
Bush executive order let EPA bury info on 9/11 health hazards| |
Excerpt: With New Yorkers already fuming about reports that the feds downplayed the danger of Ground Zero dust, the White House gave EPA chief Christie Whitman the power to bury embarrassing documents by classifying them "secret."
"I hereby designate the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to classify information originally as 'Secret,'" states the executive order, which was signed by President Bush on May 6, 2002. |
March 23, 2006:
Another 9/11 emergency worker dies of lung cancer| |
Excerpt: Retired paramedic Deborah Reeve, 41, suffered from mesothelioma, a type of lung cancer typically associated with asbestos exposure. Reeve worked down at the World Trade Center site for several weeks following the terrorist attacks.
The cancer left the mother of two from the Bronx emaciated and unable to walk. Her husband David, also a paramedic, says his wife worked at the World Trade Center site morgue for a couple of days after the attacks.
Her doctor says exposure to carcinogens and asbestos is what led to her illness. |
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In the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center, the White House instructed the Environmental Protection Agency to give the public misleading information, telling New Yorkers it was safe to breathe when reliable information on air quality was not available.
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Jan. 17, 2006:
Three more rescue workers die of 9/11 air pollution poisoning
Nov. 30, 2004:
"World Trade Center Cough" plagues 9/11 rescue workers
Aug. 22, 2004:
9/11 rescue dogs dying of cancer
Sept. 12, 2003:
Victims of White House lie about 9-11 pollution
sign up for study of how bad their health got f***ed up
Sept. 10, 2003:
Ground zero air quality was 'brutal' for months
Scientist concurs that EPA reports misled the public
Aug. 23, 2003:
White House ordered EPA to lie about 9/11 pollution danger
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In the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center, the White House instructed the Environmental Protection Agency to give the public misleading information, telling New Yorkers it was safe to breathe when reliable information on air quality was not available.
That finding is included in a report released Friday by the Office of the Inspector General of the EPA. It noted that some of the agency's news releases in the weeks after the attack were softened before being released to the public: Reassuring information was added, while cautionary information was deleted.
"When the EPA made a September 18 announcement that the air was 'safe' to breathe, it did not have sufficient data and analyses to make such a blanket statement," the report says. "Furthermore, the White House Council on Environmental Quality influenced ... the information that EPA communicated to the public through its early press releases when it convinced EPA to add reassuring statements and delete cautionary ones."
On the morning of Sept. 12, according to the report, the office of then-EPA Administrator Christie Whitman issued a memo: "All statements to the media should be cleared through the NSC (National Security Council in the White House) before they are released." The 165-page report compares excerpts from EPA draft statements to the final versions, including these:
The draft statement contained a warning from EPA scientists that homes and businesses near ground zero should be cleaned by professionals. Instead, the public was told to follow instructions from New York City officials.
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Another draft statement was deleted; it raised concerns about "sensitive populations" such as asthma patients, the elderly and people with underlying respiratory diseases.
A statement about discovery of asbestos at higher than safe levels in dust samples from lower Manhattan was changed to state that "samples confirm previous reports that ambient air quality meets OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) standards and consequently is not a cause for public concern."
Language in an EPA draft stating that asbestos levels in some areas were three times higher than national standards was changed to "slightly above the 1 percent trigger for defining asbestos material."
This sentence was added to a Sept. 16 news release: "Our tests show that it is safe for New Yorkers to go back to work in New York's financial district." It replaced a statement that initial monitors failed to turn up dangerous samples.
A warning on the importance of safely handling ground zero cleanup, due to lead and asbestos exposure, was changed to say that some contaminants had been noted downtown but "the general public should be very reassured by initial sampling."
The report also notes examples when EPA officials claimed that conditions were safe when no scientific support was available.
... The White House did not respond to requests for comment.
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Aug. 10, 2003:
Bad-health hell at WTC site
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Thousands of New Yorkers say they still suffer from the World Trade Center attacks — and they are reaching out to help hot lines in numbers greater than last year, The Post has learned.
Callers are seeking assistance for health complaints — ranging from respiratory ailments and pneumonia to acid reflux — that many link to the toxic plume created when the Twin Towers fell, as well as for post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression.
Medical-research workers at Ground Zero report complaints of persistent asthma, sinusitis and acute nose and throat irritation.
"People calling are preoccupied with their safety. There is sleeplessness, they're having a range of unwanted memories and flashbacks, there's a fear of going into public places and substance-abuse problems," said John Draper, director of Lifenet, a New York counseling service.
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Lifenet received more than 6,300 calls last month — up more than 20 percent from July 2002, he said. Lifenet counselors say about one in seven recent callers exhibits signs of post-traumatic stress disorder. Prior to 9/11, Lifenet got about 3,000 calls a month, with one in 200 showing such symptoms.
The Fire Department says counseling cases rose from 2,106 last July to 3,003 this year. And the Police Organization Providing Peer Assistance has experienced a 30 percent increase since last year. ...
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Aug. 10, 2003:
WTC soot may have made babies smaller
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Air pollution from the World Trade Center attacks may have resulted in smaller babies among pregnant mothers who were in or near the collapsing towers, preliminary research suggests.
Exposed pregnant women in the study faced double the risk of delivering babies who were up to a half-pound smaller than babies born to non-exposed women.
The size differences among babies born to women exposed to dirt and soot from the attacks suggest a condition called intrauterine growth restriction which has been linked with exposure to air pollution.
Previous research also has found that babies affected by intrauterine growth restriction may be at increased risk for heart disease, hypertension and other health problems in adulthood, said Dr. Philip Landrigan, chairman of Mount Sinai School of Medicine's community and preventive medicine department, and one of the researchers.
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While duration of the exposure was relatively short, ''the intensity of exposure to soot and dust was extraordinarily high,'' Landrigan said.
The study appears in today's Journal of the American Medical Association.
The pregnancy research involved 182 women, including 12 who were in the towers on Sept. 11, 2001, when terrorists slammed hijacked jets into the buildings. Most of the others were within a half-mile of the site. Their babies were compared with infants born at Mount Sinai's hospital in Manhattan to women who were pregnant during the attacks but weren't near the site.
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Aug. 9, 2003:
White House ordered 9/11 EPA lies
There's much more than this at Unknown News.
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