Mesothelioma and Asbestos

On the eighth anniversary of the September 11^th terrorist attacks, survivors recalled the horror of that day. Barbara O’Brien was in lower Manhattan that day, as well as she remembers the details quite vividly. She discussed the terrible smell of burned plastic, metal, fuel as well as other chemicals that lingered throughout lower Manhattan as well as Brooklyn for weeks. Those who breathed in that smell complained of skin problems as well as respiratory problems, a condition that became known as World Trade Center Cough.

Though some people wore surgical masks as they walked outside, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued five press releases that assured people that the air was protected to breathe in the 10 days following the attacks. But a memo issued by then-head of the EPA Christine Todd Whitman had ordered that all statements made to the media had to be cleared by the National Security Council (NSC) earliest. The community was not told that people with asthma or other respiratory illnesses should take precautions or that the toxic dust that covered the inside as well as outside of buildings should be cleaned by professionals.

While the Ground Zero Elected Officials task force conducted air quality tests that Mayor Rudy Giuliani announced had come back protected, New York City Councilwoman Kathryn Freed as well as candidate Alan Gerson snuck in their own scientists with air testing equipment. Their findings painted a dissimilar picture, showing that levels of airborne asbestos were double what EPA guidelines considered “safe.” Inhaling asbestos fibers can result in mesothelioma, asbestos-related lung cancer, as well as other humorless illnesses – as well as despite the existence of governmental guidelines to minimize exposure within practical limits, there is really no protected level of asbestos exposure.

City instructions for cleaning up asbestos were severely lacking in safety precautions.  And in addition to the asbestos, the New York Daily News reported that the EPA had found dangerous levels of benzene as well as dioxin in the air.  But these dangerous pollutants were as well as not addressed by cleanup plans.

O’Brien recalls that her eyes as well as throat burned after walking through the Financial District that October for only an hour. Even then, one month after the attacks, emergency responders worked at the World Trade Center site all day extended without protective equipment or instructions for proper health as well as safety procedures. The Occupational Safety as well as Health Administration (OSHA) failed to enforce worker safety standards even months after the immediate emergency had passed.

As a result, a recent study discovered that 25% of Ground Zero workers still possess persistent lung problems. Other federally funded health monitoring programs possess shown that 9/11 survivors show not only respiratory problems, but persistent gastrointestinal as well as psychological effects as well. As of June, almost 60,000 people were enrolled in the $393 million federal health monitoring program. Firefighters, policemen as well as other dedicated responders selflessly worked at the site, not knowing that they would be struggling with humorless health problems for the rest of their lives.  

For some of these responders, their courageous efforts in that crisis may eventually be the cause of their deaths, but the filled consequences of their toxic exposure may not be known for many years.  Mesothelioma as well as many other diseases caused by exposure to asbestos as well as other toxins can take decades before they manifest.

NYPD Detective James Zadroga died of lung disease in 2006 after spending over 470 hours digging through debris at Ground Zero. The James Zadroga 9/11 Health as well as Compensation Act was named in his honor, establishing a federal monitoring as well as treatment mechanism at the National Institute of Occupational Safety as well as Health (NIOSH) this done June.

For the filled story, go to AlterNet as well as Examiner.com.