LAT: Lost in the Dust of 9/11 (Janitors epic cleanup, now 'the cough' )

[Pirate Smile]

Lost in the Dust of 9/11
From society's margins, janitors were drafted for an epic cleanup around ground zero. Then 'the cough' racked their lives.

By Ellen Barry, Times Staff Writer
October 14, 2006


NEW YORK — There is no voice left in Manuel Checo's voice. He speaks in a granular rasp that fades, occasionally, to whispery puffs of air. Sometimes, for periods as long as two days, he is unable to speak at all. When that happens, Checo carries a pad of paper with him so he can scribble down notes if he needs something. But for the most part, he will simply disappear into his rented room, ignoring his cellphone when it rings.

Checo, a janitor, spent six months cleaning dust from office buildings around ground zero after the World Trade Center attack. Five years later, the lining of his lungs is pocked with scars and densities that do not belong there — possibly a sign of a disease that can cause lung tissue to become so stiff that it can no longer carry oxygen, wrote a radiologist who examined a scan of his lungs last year.

The son of a general in the Dominican Republic, Checo, 54, irons his shirts with military precision. When he meets a woman on the street, he kisses her hand. But the truth is that when he discovered that he was too weak to work again, his life veered terribly off course. He was evicted from his apartment and slept in his car for six months. Acquaintances didn't understand his racking cough and thought he had tuberculosis or AIDS.

-snip-
The dust around ground zero, we now know, contained caustic, finely pulverized concrete, trillions of microscopic fibers of glass, and particles of lead, mercury and arsenic, as well as carcinogens like asbestos and dioxin. Five years out, the "World Trade Center cough" has started to look like a persistent — and in some cases disabling — respiratory condition.

An ever-growing number of New Yorkers is coming forward to describe symptoms: the first responders who plunged into the tangled wreckage to find survivors; the volunteers who hauled diesel fuel and doled out cigarettes; the students at Stuyvesant High School who returned to classes while acrid fires burned nearby.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-cleaners14oct14,0,3275974.story?coll=la-home-headlines

The government failed people terribly - all the first responders, workers, nearby students, etc.. Another disgrace.

[Kurovski]

1. K&R.(nt)

[pnorman]

2. Just yesterday, I received the below from Jobs With Justice:

Sisters and Brothers -

If you know anyone who performed rescue, recovery or cleanup work in New York in the aftermath of the World Trade Center attacks, please make sure that they are aware of the information below. As the article, written by New York Committee on Occupational Safety & Health's (NYCOSH) Jonathan Bennett spells out, a substantial majority of the rescue and recovery workers are suffering from long-term health problems. Even if their work was on a volunteer basis, these workers may be eligible for workers' compensation benefits through the State of New York. For a powerful indication of the wide geographical distribution of 9/11-related disease, visit http://www.nycosh.org/911info/diaspora-news.php .
Please circulate this information. Thanks.

In solidarity,
Paul Bigman

New law provides benefits for 9/11 workers and volunteers: Registration open for a year

By Jonathan Bennett (byline may be omitted)

Thanks to a new law, most people who performed rescue, recovery or cleanup work after the collapse of the World Trade Center are now eligible to register with the New York State Workers’ Compensation Board. If someone who is registered develops a 9/11-related illness at any time in the future he or she will be eligible to file a workers’ compensation claim. Failure to register by August 14, 2007 will make it impossible to file a claim, even if the worker develops a 9/11-related illness.

The importance of the new law was underlined in early September, when doctors at New York’s Mt. Sinai School of Medicine published a study showing that more than 70 percent of 9,500 9/11 workers and volunteers who had been examined had developed potentially serious respiratory illness.

Those who did rescue, recovery or cleanup work after 9/11 now have an opportunity to ensure that if they ever become ill as a result, all their medical expenses will be covered.

Many workers and volunteers have been prevented from getting compensation because they only began to become sick after the 2-year deadline for filing a claim. Others who were exposed to the toxic atmosphere in Lower Manhattan are healthy now, but may develop a 9/11-related disease in the future. Under the old rules, they would also have been prevented from receiving benefits.

The law applies to most people who did paid or unpaid rescue, recovery or cleanup work in Lower Manhattan south of Canal or Pike Streets between Sept. 11, 2001 and Sept. 12, 2002. It also applies to those who worked at the Staten Island landfill, the barge operation between Manhattan and Staten Island or the New York City morgue. The only workers who are not covered are those who are not in the workers’ compensation system: NYC uniformed services (firefighters, police, sanitation workers), NYC teachers and federal employees. But even those workers are eligible if they also performed any off-duty rescue, recovery or cleanup work, as many of them did.

Anyone who has already filed a claim for 9/11-related workers’ compensation and been turned down because the claim was filed after the 2-year filing deadline had passed, can register and file a new claim under the new law.

Workers who have already filed for workers’ compensation for injuries suffered during the rescue, recovery or cleanup operation should also register under this program in case they develop a 9/11-related condition that is different from the basis of their established claim.

In an effort to inform everyone, whether sick or healthy, who did paid or unpaid work in Lower Manhattan after 9/11 about the program, a group of medical, labor, legal and business organizations have formed a coalition to publicize the program and facilitate registration of everyone who is eligible. Leaders of the coalition, which includes representatives of the World Trade Center Medical Monitoring Program, the Laborers’ Health and Safety Trust Fund, the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (NYCOSH), the Business and Labor Coalition of New York (BALCONY), and workers’ compensation law firms issued a statement about the compensation program’s importance.

"It is imperative that anyone who worked within the boundaries or at the sites detailed in the law register with the New York State Workers’ Compensation Board whether they are sick or not," said the statement. "By joining the registry before the deadline next August, workers and volunteers will preserve their rights to benefits. Failure to register will prevent individuals who may develop cancer or other slow starting diseases from receiving benefits."

For information about registering and filing claims, contact your union or, on the Internet, visit http://www.nycosh.org. Or call NYCOSH at 212-227-6440 ext. 23 (for English) or ext 24 (for Spanish).




pnorman

[MADem]

3. But.....but.......but.......

The GOP TOLD US it was SAFE!!!

Christie Todd Whitman was the front-flak of that effort!! Gee, they tested the air, and it was, as the monkey sez, "no problemo" doncha know! Deep breaths, everyone!!! In, out, IN, out, in, OUT!!!

Clearly these sick people must actually be Democratic malingerers looking for a free payday....yeah, that's the ticket!!!!!!!


Must I haul this out :sarcasm: for the irony-impaired?

[Pirate Smile]

4. Here is more:

"Less visible is the army of cleaning workers who were sent to the area to clean office buildings. Those were the cases that were shocking to Scottie Hill, a social worker, when the Mount Sinai Medical Center opened its WTC health clinic in 2002. The cleaners, mostly Polish and Latino immigrants, were already living close to the edge when the job began; by the following year, many were in crisis because of lost wages and poor health.

Three out of four lacked health insurance. Forget workers' compensation — many of them could not even contact their employers by phone. Hill frequently saw clients who were facing eviction or had lost their homes. Some couldn't afford the $4 it cost to ride the subway to the clinic and back.

A few of the immigrant workers, too sick to support themselves in the U.S. anymore, have returned to their home countries. But that decision is fraught, too, because relatives back home — or doctors, for that matter — may not know what is wrong with them. Jaime Carcamo, a psychologist who treats 50 Latino workers who cleaned around ground zero, said some of them, finding that they were unable to work, simply withdrew from society.

"They just remain like nomads," he said. "Some of these people just fell into the cracks. People don't know about them, but they're out there still." '

[aquart]

5. Negligent homicide. Depraved indifference to human life.

[rocktivity]

6. And even LESS visible are the people who returned to work in the area

after being lied to about the air quality being safe. One of them was my nephew (he happened to be in New Jersey on a sales call on 9/11), and I've warned him to keep a sharp eye on his health. What happens when THEY start getting sick over the next decade or two?

:headbang:
rocknation

[lovuian]

7. Theres more victims of 9/11 than 3000 who died and our

government is responsible

I believe in the next 5 years the victims will escalate to more than 10,000 maybe more... Do we still know if the air in New York is ok???

[Pirate Smile]

8. kick