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Subscribe to RSSThe National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health is giving surviving first responders and victims of the 9/11 attacks cancer coverage under the Zadroga Health and Compensation Law. NBC's Robert Bazell reports.
Updated at 5:15 p.m. ET: The federal government on Monday added 14 categories of cancer to the list of illnesses linked to the 9/11 terror attacks, which brings added coverage to rescue workers and people living near ground zero on Sept. 11, 2001.
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health approved the additions to the list of illnesses covered in the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, which were proposed in June. The updated regulations take effect 30 days after the ruling is published in the Federal Register.
See more on this story on NBCNewYork.com
The decision "marks an important step in the effort to provide needed treatment and care to 9/11 responders and survivors," said Dr. John Howard, administrator of the World Trade Center Health Program established by the Zadroga law.
The Zadroga Act — named after NYPD Detective James Zadroga, who died at age 34 after working at ground zero — was signed into law nearly two years ago. Despite the hundreds of sick responders, the act did not cover cancer because of a supposed lack of scientific evidence linking cancer to ground zero toxins.
"We are getting sick in record numbers," said Ray Pfeiffer, a first responder who was diagnosed three years ago with kidney cancer. He said it has been a struggle to pay for expensive medications not fully covered by his insurance.
"It's fantastic news," he said of the expanded list of covered illnesses.
From the first hours of rescue efforts at the World Trade Center site, many feared that the fumes and dust contained chemicals that might cause cancer and other diseases. A new study claims those firemen suffer an increased rate of cancer. NBC's Robert Bazell reports.
About 400 residents and rescue workers have died from cancer since 9/11, according to the New York Post.
With cancer included in the program more victims are likely to seek compensation, which could cause individual awards to be reduced as officials divide up the $2.77 billion fund.
"They’re going to add cancers, but are they going to add more money to the fund?" Thomas "T.J." Gilmartin, who suffers from lung disease and sleep apnea, said to the Post. "It’s crazy. Every time, we gotta fight. It’s two years since Obama signed that bill, and nobody’s got 10 cents."
"We fought long and hard to make sure that our 9/11 heroes suffering from cancers obtained from their work at ground zero get the help they deserve," U.S. Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Charles E. Schumer, both of New York, said in a statement. "Today's announcement is a huge step forward that will provide justice and support to so many who are now suffering from cancer and other illnesses. We will press on - with advocates, the community, and our partners in government - to ensure that all those who suffered harm from 9/11 and its aftermath get the access to the program they so desperately need."
Family photo via NY Daily News / AP File
In this undated file photo, New York City Police Det. James Zadroga, left, holds his daughter Tylerann. Fifty cancers will be added to the Zadroga Act, which was named after the detective--who died of respiratory failure in Jan. 2006 after working at ground zero.
Last week, the New York City Fire Department added nine names to the 55 already etched on a wall honoring members who have died of illnesses related to ground zero rescue and recovery work, Reuters reported.
Some estimates put the overall death toll from 9/11-related illness at more than 1,000, according to Reuters. At least 20,000 ground zero workers are being treated across the country and 40,000 are being monitored by the World Trade Center Health Program, Reuters reported.
Tuesday marks the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks.
Last fall, the September 11 Memorial at ground zero finally opened in the footprints of the original towers. Since then, more than 4 million people have visited.
Financial, security and design setbacks have delayed the redevelopment of the World Trade Center in the past decade. A recent project audit indicates that overall site redevelopment costs have grown to nearly $15 billion.
One World Trade Center is nearing completion and is expected to open in 2014.
NBCNewYork.com's Brynn Gingras and Reuters contributed to this report.
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The 'government' doesnt care about the cancer. Hell, it didnt care that they brought down the towers in the first place, killing all those inside. I guess they feel they should cop to the cancer so we dont ask for more investigations as to why the tower 'collapsed' in the first place. Not to mention WTC 7. Its a sham!
I'm tired of congress giving away tax dollars to buy votes. This bill has been in the works and was ready for vote months ago. Isn't it convenient they delayed it until 8 weeks before the next election?
The hateful comments on this thread and the one today on the costs to operate the 9/11 memorial are just unbelievable. THe first responders and those living in downtown manhattan were exposed to more chemicals and hazardous particles then any other site. To ask people to help us clean up the site and get the city and the nation back in business and then turn your back on them when they get sick is beneath us as a society and country.
The fact that people resent 60 million per year to operate the memorial? What about the 14 billion with a b that the government spent on fixing those levees in New Orleans? This country has evolved to a place where anytime public funds are spent anything not connected to my own personal benefit is now a bad thing. For all of you stating that New York city should worry about the memorial themselves and questioning the wisdom of doing the right thing to those whose health will never be the same I say this to you..
I wish for you a cataclysmic event like 9/11 happens to your city, your town to our friends and neighbors or workplace. You go to work one beautiful day and have everything turned upside down, loose people you love and any sense of personal security. You worry about your company going under and then you tell me how it feels and will anything be enough for you. Shame on all of you.
This is happening because it was cheaper to let the first responders die off. 11 years later the cost won't effect buying more ammunition to kill people over seas.
Chicago would be a good start....
Wow... they should ban terrorist attacks in all public places (except in designated areas and casinos of course).
9/11 Nukes - Radiation-induced cancers ... Google "China Syndrome Aftermath"
Thank GOD it only took them ten years to figure this one out. Then again it only took them approx. 40 yrs on agent orange. Maybe the gov was waiting for most GI's that were expose died before they came to terms of compensation. What a compassionate Gov.
This is the right thing to do.
Now what about the Nam vets who are still alive and suffer from Monsanto's Agent Orange!?!
Let's compare. I just received a church's bulletin (small town in northwest Texas - population 2300) and in that bulletin they list 33 members in need of prayer for cancer (voodoo healing) out of a total of 197 members. Now I believe this town has 7 churches total all with different fairy tales except of course fantasies of mohammad, buddha, krishna, etc. (I'm surprised they allow black or brown cattle in their herds) Now if you do the math of the number of people exposed with cancer at ground zero with the average number of people with cancer in a small community ======= LIFE IS A CRAP SHOOT and 9/11 workers should have had their own health insurance to cover their own cancer which would of happened with or with ground zero.Or we can let the tea baggers decide if the workers deserve government paid health coverage - now that should let,em steep for a few and keep their small brains away from grown decisions.
Rev honey, it's the environment there. Check it out.
With all of the B.S. about politics someone should try to answer the question - Why all of the strange cancers? What was there in that area that caused extraordinary medical conditions to exist? Is there a link between asbestos or jet fuel that explains all of this? No, but if you look at the unusual chemical reactions that have caused cancers as well as the strange collapse of building 7 you would assume that there were explosives or chemicals that should not have been there. Try looking up nanothermites.
Tacky, please e-mail me some information on the nanothermites.
info@kathyernlane.com
Thank you.
It is clear. The people should have abandoned New York. Don't clean up the mess. Democrats had destroyed the US military and defense. Let the New York Democrats feel the pain. Leave the mess for all to remember.
Jamie: Leave the mess as a memorial to the criminal regime of bush/cheney/rumsfeld. Also leave there the volumes of their dealings with the DoD, oil cartels, etc. Leave there also the tomes of the families whose lives were ruined because of the stupidity in the WHouse and how cheney conspired to lead this country to invade Iraq. Leave there also the charts and graphs showing the fortunes made by the warmongers that supplied second rate materiel to our troops, the ersatz private security that further blackened the face of the U.S. There's more we should be leaving. Yes, the mess should have been left, "Lest we forget" life under a republican regime. Oh yes, important, too, a copy of the rhetoric by the very worst president, a republican minion, read: www.presidentialrhetoric.com/speeches/09.20.01.html
It is so sad that it takes years of battling bureaucracies to make sure that those affected by the environmental toxins get the benefits due to them. In many of these cases, delayed health care contributed to worse illness and death. For some, too little, too late. Duh, this is not rocket science. thank goodness, though, that they have finally done this.
Just THINK, if we had Single Payer or Universal Health Care, this would not have been an issue! ALL WHOM BRAVED the toxic air to help save those who were in the building, all those just walking in the area when it happen! ALL whom were harmed, would be on their way to good health, possibly RECOVERED, and those who died, did not have to loose their lives behind a Bush Appointed EPA Director, that LIED to Americans and the World! That person should be in jail, faced with all kinds of Civil Law Suits!
Send the bills to the ragheads who paid for the attacks - or take it out of their huge oil profits. And for pity's sake stop this security overkill. We want to live free, not in a Police State where the Gestapo, disguised as your friendly TSA master or mistress, or "Security Guard" revels in subjugating you to peon class. Got a terrorist? Draw and quarter him on C-Span, feed his parts to the fish, sterilize his entire family, male and female, siblings and all their issue to remove their genes forever from the pool of humanity, and impose a permanent ban on travel to the USA by anyone even remotely related.
You'll be amazed at how terrorist attacks would cease.
Awesome, you just summed up the defination of a terrorist. Acts of terror.
As everyone has a story... I was walking about midtown during the crisis while a friend was having a out-patient procedure near NYU. I walked him home as there were no taxis to be had. I did not suspect what was in the air. In early November I had a pneumonia and it was treated at the E.R. with antibiotics. Unfortunately, the E.R. only read the x-ray and my pneumonia returned in December when a blood test showed a different strain of pneumonia and it was a time-comsuming recovery. In 2002 more pneumonias and in July a high fever to where I lost vital signs in the E.R. and an MRI showed the onset of COPD Emphysema. I never smoked and I was tested for the alpha gene that was not present. By 2007, I retired from a twenty year publishing career with social security and private insurance which I had to hire an attorney as the insurance company tried to disqualify me and my doctor still from 2001 had excellent records. I live to keep healthy and I have oxygen at home as needed and my activities are limited. I cannot say that the toxins are perhaps the direct proof and yet I was completely healthy. What worries me is that I have a Supplemental Healthcare insurance which I carried over from my employer and I worry that care will be expensive my reach when my condition requires it. I have certain antibiotics that the insurance calls tier three and I have to have the imported brand name. I am not about to try to qualify for a part of any fund and yet there is more to the health effects of this air quality on 9/11/01. I am 52 and too young to be this sick. The COPD - emphysema is not what will kill me, my heart is starting to weaken and there are no reversible cures for my lung tissue or heart other than meds and avoid infections. I still live in Manhattan. I do wish there were studies as I would like to learn more and participate as research is necessary to see how the years will affect more lives. Sure, I was more susceptible to breathe in that air and another person might have tolerated it or will they? I am glad to see articles that continue to ask questions.
You Dont Say?!?!?! Jesus Christ.... The twin towers Had Asbestos for the insulin... Its a wonder All of New York City didn't get Cancer due to the cloud cover.. This is old news people.. if you did your homework this has been around for YEARS! qwuit being so ignorant to the facts.
Remembering 9/11...
That day stays with me. I think of it nearly every day. There are still so many unanswered questions. As a Christian, I know that I MUST forgive those that caused the deaths of so many innocents...but as a compassionate and Patriotic American I still find it hard to do.
I pray that I find that forgiveness before I die. I pray for strength for the families of the victims and I hope they have only good memories of their lost loved ones.
May God Bless you and keep you safe!
My sister was in 9/11 as a person who worked on the area. She saw the second plane hit. She raced through the streets in panic like everyone else as the debris fell through the skies, looking for shelter. Because the city shut all the mass transit down, she had to walk home, all the while breathing in the air fouled by the disaster. Later she had to return to her office in the Wall Street area. The city suggested workers in the Ground Zero area wear masks for protection. Kind of like shutting the barn door after the horses have bolted. Now, eleven years later, my sister is suffering from severe COPD. She is on 24/7 oxygen. She is no longer able to work. And yet the government is not acknowledging people who have developed lung problems, only people who have developed cancer. My sister is dying as sure as people with 9/11-related cancer are dying. Why does she not have the same access to financial help as those cancer victims?
It's ABOUT time. Many have lost everything while trying to cover their medical expenses from cancers and day to day flu like symptoms from 9/11. As a gulf war vet with Gulf War Syndrome and exposure to the oil well fire smoke/toxins I have the same medical issues that many of those from 9/11 have, so I have much empathy for them. This should have been approved when the first search dog died from cancer if not much sooner. They should have known what affects those toxins were going to have on people from what happened in the gulf war but hey, they are still trying to deny us veterans benefits too so who am I kidding. God bless those affected by 9/11 and their families and God bless our veterans and their loved ones. God bless the U.S.A. Dear God, we still love you and need you. Always and forever to guide us and protect us. Amen
THANK YOU ...PRESIDENT OBAMA , the NAVY SEALS , and EVERYONE who had a hand in the capture and death of OSAMA BIEN LADEN !!!!!!!!!....GOD BLESS AMERICA !!!!!
Y'all. Mr. Mushroom would do well to avoid the psychoactive species, and stick with the edible mushrooms one buys at the supermarket. Or if too addicted, perhaps having his doc consider bumping up the dose of the antipsychotics. And stay away from the kool aid. Aa.
Really?
ARE YOUR FREEDOMS BEING SCATTERED TO THE WIND?
For a DETAILED LISTING of "policies" AND THEIR "long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism".
PLEASE VISIT:
meetup.com/RLCNF-org/pages/Loss_of_Liberty_and_Bill_of_Rights/
Thankyou and sorry for all of your sickness from 9/11.May our government never fool or lie to us again.The acts on 9/11 were and are a discrace to our nation.This should be a day to remind us of what horror our government has done to its own people .
I live in Michigan in farm country and we have lots of cancer problems from farm contamination. Many of my neighbors have died in the last 10 years.
Nobody should have to pay for medical care of any kind, ever! It can be done but unfortunately, america has way to many greedy people, most of them work in politics.......but greed comes in many ways. Doctors, lawyers, judges even drug dealers, thieves.....hey, let's not forget about con artists. Their all about greed. It really is a bad deal having to pay for your health. Maybe someday in the far future but I would'nt hold my breath on that.
I live in a small town in Idaho. Someone here get's cancer once a month.
And it has nothing to do with 9/11.
As we move into cancer awareness month, I think this article is more than appropriate to shed light on finding a cure and helping others cope with their diagnosis and treatment. www.wornbyacelebrity.com