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World Trade Center Health
The victims of 9/11 keep coming.
As more than 50,000 rescue workers dug through the debris of the crumbled World Trade towers searching for survivors of the September 11 terrorist attack, they breathed in lungfuls of asbestos, lead, mercury, pulverized concrete, powdered glass, and the compounds of burning jet fuel. Few wore protective masks, and those who did wore flimsy ones.
They weren’t worried about their own health; they were worried about finding people still alive at the bottom of all that rubble. Besides, Christine Whitman, who was then head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), had declared the air at Ground Zero “safe to breathe.”
Clearly it was not. Five years later, several workers have died from heart, lung, and respiratory ailments believed to be related to their exposure at Ground Zero, and roughly 16,000 others are being monitored for health problems at Manhattan’s Mount Sinai Medical Centre. Problems include shortness of breath, headaches, joint pain, “World Trade Center cough,” and a variety of heart, lung, and respiratory ailments. As lawsuits mount, Congress is calling for a long-term monitoring and health care plan for those who risked their own lives to save others in the wake of those terrorist attacks.
Experts are also concerned about the 50,000 residents of lower Manhattan and roughly 400,000 people working within a mile of the site, who were also exposed to the toxic dust clouds in the days following the attacks.
And now, concerns are being raised about the consequences of contamination following Hurricane Katrina. As with 9/11, public officials reassured citizens that contamination was insufficient to cause concern. Now, as independent measurements are published, we are learning that the aftermath of Katrina may carry a toxic burden, too.
To learn more about health concerns related to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, go to: www.guardian.co.uk/september11/story/0,,1706700,00.html or www.nycosh.org/environment_wtc/registry_factsheet.html.
To read more about this and other environmental health issues, go to: www.environmentalhealthnews.org, www.ourstolenfuture.org or www.healthandenvironment.org.
