Long line of first responder’s die due to “World Trade Center illness”
Vietnam War veteran Richard Driscoll recently became the 200th member of the New York Fire Department to die of illness related to the Sept. 11, 2001, World Trade Center destruction and attacks, the FDNY reported. As a New York City Fire Department firefighter, Driscoll had served in the department for 32 years and took part in the rescue and recovery efforts after the attacks on 9-11. He died July 18th.
Firefighter Richard Driscoll is the 200th FDNY member to die of a 9/11-related illness. (FDNY)
FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro said “It is almost incomprehensible that after losing 343 members on September 11, we now have 200 more FDNY members die due to World Trade Center illness,” Nigro continued “These heroes gave their lives bravely fighting to rescue and recover others. We will never forget them.”
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio shared photos of Driscoll and Kevin Nolan, another FDNY firefighter who died of similar illness this week, called for the U.S. Senate to approve funding for the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund. “200 members of the FDNY have now succumbed to WTC-related illness,” he wrote. “They didn’t hesitate to run into danger. They stayed until the work was done.”
As of December 2017, at least a dozen conditions were a direct result of the destruction of the World Trade Centers. Of those conditions the most common cancers were skin cancer and prostate cancer as reported by the Center for Disease Control.
In 2006, Ellen Berry of the Los Angeles Times reported that for “five months following the attacks, dust from the pulverized buildings continued to fill the air of the World Trade Center site. Increasing numbers of New York residents are reporting symptoms of Ground Zero respiratory illnesses.”
New York City has been sued multiple times over “‘WTC toxin’ Death” and “The Mystery of Lung Disease”. An article by Denise Grady in The New York Times, April 2010, was titled “Lung Function of 9/11 Rescuers Fell, Study Finds.” The Times article said “A study of 5,000 rescue workers published in April 2010 by Dr. David J. Prezant the chief medical officer for the Office of Medical Affairs at the New York City Fire Department found that all the workers studied had impaired lung functions with an average impairment of 10 percent. The study found the impairments presented itself in the first year after the attack with little or no improvements in the ensuing six years. 30 to 40 percent of workers were reporting persistent symptoms and 1000 of the group studied were on “permanent respiratory disability.” Dr. Prezant noted the medications that are being given ease symptoms but are not a cure. Dr. Byron Thomas, medical director of the Center for Chest Disease and Respiratory Failure at New York–Presbyterian/Columbia hospital said that “The drop-off in lung function initially is really quite significant and doesn’t get better. That’s not what we’ve generally come to expect in people with fire and smoke exposure. They usually recover.”
It was reported in the December 2012 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association that there is a possible association between exposure to the World Trade Center debris and greater risk of cancer. The JAMA showed the incidences for prostate cancer, thyroid cancer, and multiple myeloma were significantly elevated among the rescue and/or recovery workers tested during 2004-2008. Over 55,000 individuals enrolled in the World Trade Center Health Registry. The World Trade Center Health Program provides medical benefits to specific groups of individuals affected by the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States.
Of 5,000 documented rescue workers at the 9-11 WTC attack there is a “70 percent illness rate among first responder’s” said Dr. Larry Norton of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Hospital, a cancer treatment and research institution in New York City, as quoted in the New York Sun newspaper in October 2006.
In the same article Dr. Norton said this should be “a wake up call,” asking “Why isn’t the whole nation mobilizing to take care of the chronic health impact of this disaster?”
Journalist Stephanie Armour, in a June 2006 USA Today article entitled “9/11 Health Troubles?” quoted University of California Davis air pollution expert Professor Emeritus Thomas Cahill, as saying, “The dust from the collapsed towers was “wildly toxic.””
Yet, President George Bush, his administration, officials, the EPA and NY City mayor Rudy Giuliani, downplayed health risks immediately following the disaster and declared the area as safe to return. With that declaration, Wall Street and major downtown buildings started to reopen posing immediate health risks to first responder’s, corporations, business owners and their employees and others.
The New York Times reported that mayor Giuiani asked congress to limit the city’s liability to $350 million. FEMA appropriated $1 billion for an insurance fund to safeguard against 9-11 lawsuits
By 2007, a study done by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health indicated that monthly costs for treating Ground Zero workers was guestimated around $20 million per month. By November 2010 many plaintiffs had agreed to a $625 million dollar settlement. Those who did not settle were eligible for $7.4 Billion dollars.
Among those affected by illness and death due to their close proximity to the WTC disaster site were and are tens of thousands of policemen, firemen, EMT’s, construction workers, health professionals, clergy, communication workers, janitorial workers, attorneys, financial district personnel, business operators, educators, students and other individuals who were caught up in the maelstrom on 9-11 or who came to the scene to lend assistance in the days immediately following the WTC attacks.
Michael Reed is managing editor of The Standard newspaper.
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