Coroner - NYC Cop, 34, Died As Direct Result Of Ground Zero Air

[hatrack]

April 12, 2006 -- The death of a burly, 34-year-old NYPD detective who wasted away and died of respiratory failure was "directly related" to his heroic work in the smoldering debris of Ground Zero after 9/11, a New Jersey coroner ruled in a first-ever finding. The momentous decision in the Jan. 6 death of James Zadroga, which was announced yesterday, definitively links a death to cleanup work at the World Trade Center site - a toxic soup of burning debris and noxious fumes.

"They all knew it was detrimental to their health," said the officer's father, Joseph Zadroga. "They all knew that, yet they stayed there." At least 75,000 cops, firefighters, rescue personnel, other workers and volunteers had at least two weeks of direct exposure there in the days following the terror strikes, according to one expert.

Dr. James Kay, the Ocean County, N.J., coroner ruled Zadroga succumbed from respiratory disease after "exposure to toxic fumes and dusts." The death, Kay ruled, "with a reasonable degree of medical certainty," stemmed from Zadroga spending 470 hours - less than 12 weeks of normal workdays - inhaling fumes amid the ruins. He wore only a paper mask for protection.


EDIT

Zadroga was 6-2 and weighed more than 260 pounds before he became ill within weeks of his selfless work at Ground Zero. He was plagued by nightmares and headaches, and ultimately needed oxygen, antibiotics and steroid injections just to get through the day. He had lost 40 pounds by the time his father found him dead on his bedroom floor in the family home. The coroner's autopsy was performed Feb. 28.

EDIT

http://www.nypost.com/news/nationalnews/66893.htm

[marmar]

1. I wonder how much more of this we're going to see...

from those who were at the scene and those who lived in the nearby neighborhoods like Tribeca and Chinatown.

[ramapo]

4. Probably quite a bit

Christie Whitman should be indicted for some crime because of her inane pronouncement that there was no danger from the emissions from the WTC fire. There was an excellent book, "Fallout", that documented the environmental consequences of WTC.

I remember being slightly horrified that lower Manhattan was reopened on the Monday following the attack, all in order to minimize financial market problems. I know people who went down there and thought they were crazy to get anywhere close to the shit burning.

[bdamomma]

2. I heard on BBC news

that 15,000 people are suffering from medical conditions from ground zero. Again, this government screwed the american people again with lies. apparently there are law suits going on to sue the government.

[Sequoia]

3. I've noticed the BBC tells us more about USA than our own media.