Ground Zero illnesses come back to haunt Giuliani

[babylonsister]

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17812.htm

Ground Zero illnesses come back to haunt Giuliani

By Jerry Mazza
Online Journal Associate Editor

06/01/07 "Online Journal" -- -- Alas, the man who is billed as 9/11’s hero, America’s sheriff, the man who would be President, is being faced today with thousands of people who worked selflessly at Ground Zero and have become ill, and are now suing the city for health damages. I wrote about their plight in a Dec, 20, 2006, Online Journal article: No money to treat 9/11 workers, $3 billion to fight Iraq?

I quoted the New York Times which said that previously “roughly $40 million that was set aside by the federal government to treat rescue workers, volunteers and firefighters who became ill after helping with the 9/11 cleanup and recovery will run out in months, physicians and federal officials said yesterday.”

The amount necessary to keep care ongoing beyond that was “$256.6 million, including $163.6 million in direct medical expenses for 19,200: $91.2 million for 9,6000 patients with respiratory or digestive disorders, $58 million for 8,000 patients with 9/11 related mental illnesses and $14.4 million for 1,600 patients with musculoskeletal conditions. Medications account for more than half of the treatment cost.”

And now we find out that the major reason for the extent of harmed responders was no less than Hizzoner Rudy Giuliani himself. According to the Times’ Ground Zero Illnesses Clouding Giuliani’s Legacy, “The city ran a generally slipshod, haphazard, uncoordinated, unfocused response to environmental concerns.” This is their quote from David Newman, an industrial hygienist with the New York Committee on Occupational Safety and Health, a labor group.

The Times adds “City officials and a range of medical experts are now convinced that the dust and toxic materials in the air around the site were a menace.” No kidding. Two 500,000-ton Towers were pulverized, vaporized into that mist.

“More than 2,000 New York City firefighters have been treated for serious respiratory problems. Seventy percent of nearly 10,000 recovery workers screened at Mount Sinai Medical Center have trouble breathing. City officials estimate that health care costs related to the air at ground zero have already run into the hundreds of millions of dollars, and no one knows whether other illnesses, like cancers, will emerge.”

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[OmmmSweetOmmm]

1. As well as this should! Thank you for finding this and recommending! eom

[proud patriot]

2. as it should

I hope it follows him for the rest of his days .

[EFerrari]

3. K&R. Out this colloborator.

[Gabi Hayes]

4. THANK you! but why not use this direct link. Online Journal is a VERY

very good website, that used to have an excellent forum

many here will be familiar with the site

http://www.onlinejournal.com/

[nini]

5. Doesn't the Big Dawg have an office in NY somewhere?

those illnesses have got to be Clinton's fault somehow :sarcasm:

[Stephanie]

6. I know that I was volunteering that week and the big request was ventilator masks

I was at Chelsea Piers volunteering for a few days right after the attacks. People kept bringing down loads of food and supplies for the rescue workers, but what they kept asking for was ventilator masks instead of the flimsy paper masks they were getting.

[AndreaCG]

7. I really hope this becomes an albatross around Giuliani's neck

Add this complaint to the idiocy of making the WTC the crisis command center, the firefighters and the WTC victims' families protesting about him. I know Republican voters are largely stupid but even they might be swayed by this.

[Gabi Hayes]

8. last chance to give the original source, Online Journal, the credit/click it deserves in the OP

http://www.onlinejournal.com/

[Gabi Hayes]

9. read these responses, from people who were there, and to the writer of the article/study

http://news.blogs.nytimes.com/2006/09/05/officials-slow-to-hear-claims-of-911-illnesses/

http://www.nytimes.com/ref/nyregion/depalma_qa.html

very sad, very frightening for those who were there

[knitter4democracy]

10. I had to stop--just horrifying to read.

Just like Katrina. This tells us more than anything about the Bush Administration and how Republicans do business.