Official: Too early to tell 9/11 health effects

[DoYouEverWonder]

April 29, 2006

NEW YORK -- The federal government's new Sept. 11 health coordinator said Friday that it's too early to say for sure whether anyone will die from illnesses stemming from their exposure at or near the World Trade Center site after the terrorist attacks in 2001.

"I don't think I can make those predictions," Dr. John Howard said at a news conference at the Vanderbilt YMCA in midtown Manhattan.

Pressed again for an answer, Howard said, "Yes, I would assume" that many people who lived or worked in lower Manhattan on and after Sept. 11, 2001, could die because of Ground Zero-related ailments.

Howard also said that anyone using a "common-sense kind of science" would say, "Well, gee, we have a lot of people here in New York who were entirely healthy before 9/11 and now they're not."

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/am-wtc0429,0,705901.story?coll=ny-nycnews-headlines

Give me a break.

[dflprincess]

1. "Could die"?

I thought some already had.

Can't these people tell the truth about anything?

[begley]

2. The terrorists hurt us in so many ways.

[orleans]

6. surely you're referring to the terrorists in our government, the

bushie administration, and the terrorists in the EPA that told everyone to go back to manhattan--the air is FINE!

[leesa]

8. The terrorists are in the White House.

They did 9-11.

[begley]

10. yeah, well. Bush not withstanding

[Ecumenist]

3. How much longer do you wait?

People have already died and are in the process of dying but their still only concerned about the bottom line.

[Igel]

4. Something's wrong in that article.

'The federal government's new Sept. 11 health coordinator said Friday that it's too early to say for sure whether anyone will die from illnesses stemming from their exposure at or near the World Trade Center site after the terrorist attacks in 2001.
'"I don't think I can make those predictions," Dr. John Howard said at a news conference at the Vanderbilt YMCA in midtown Manhattan.
'Pressed again for an answer, Howard said, "Yes, I would assume" that many people who lived or worked in lower Manhattan on and after Sept. 11, 2001, could die because of Ground Zero-related ailments.
'Howard also said that anyone using a "common-sense kind of science" would say, "Well, gee, we have a lot of people here in New York who were entirely healthy before 9/11 and now they're not." '

That passage isn't quite coherent, it goes a bit awry in the third and fourth paragraphs. It works if there's some contrastive focus on 'could' in paragraph 3 and if 'common-sense kind of science' is taken to be sarcastic, not really meaning any kind of real science ... but the reporter didn't write it that way, and I don't think the reporter understood it that way.

[lovuian]

5. This man is being condescending... when this is a serious

business of people dying.......

[Hekate]

7. Once again W appoints a doc who's taken the Oath of Hypocrisy

Ye gods, where does he find them? Under a rock?

Hekate

[leesa]

9. Pretty much standard procedure from a government wanting to avoid

lawsuits and payment for care...deny the problem until most are dead. Agent orange, DU, same thing.

[WindRavenX]

11. Dr.Howard needs to shut his mouth

Dr.Howard, the following was heated and spread in the air and debris that millions of people were exposed to; rescuers were exposed to much, much higher:

1. Asbestos. mmm...carcinogenics!

2. Uranium

3. Lead

And a whole lot more fun, carcinogenic goodness.

This MD wants to tell me that being exposed to high levels of those compounds won't cause major health issues? Asshat.

FWIW, some of the rescue dogs have died of cancer, and a police officer has died of respiratory ailments augmented by exposure to 9/11 chemicals and compounds.

Dr.Howard is full of shit.

[Jazz2006]

12. Could? Surely, the truth is "will".

Thousands of people cannot possibly have breathed in the toxic stew that was at the site without some of them becoming very, very ill as a result.

It is disgraceful that four and a half years later, there is no comprehensive monitoring system in place to track and treat people whose health has been adversely affected.