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Bravest, Finest cite work at WTC and Fresh Kills
By MICHELLE McPHEE
DAILY NEWS POLICE BUREAU CHIEF
In a dramatic sign of escalating health problems stemming from 9/11, more than 1,700 cops and firefighters have filed lawsuits against the city claiming they were sickened by work at Ground Zero or the Fresh Kills landfill.
To handle the unprecedented legal overload, the city’s Law Department set up a special division to tackle 9/11 claims and appointed attorney Kenneth Becker as chief of the World Trade Center unit.
Underscoring the problem’s severity, a police officer was awarded a tax-free disability pension after a judge issued a landmark ruling that 9/11 work was a contributing factor in the cop’s cancer.
Richard Lahm, 49, who retired from the 46th Precinct in the Bronx this year, is battling terminal tonsil cancer - a condition his doctor claims was caused by the toxins released at Ground Zero.
Last month, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Kibbie Payne ruled that Lahm’s cancer "was exacerbated" by his work after the terrorist attacks and ordered the city to pay him a tax-free disability pension.
While most medical experts doubt any cancer clusters would emerge so soon after 9/11, there is extensive evidence of other ailments among those who worked at Ground Zero or Fresh Kills - where nearly 2 million tons of Trade Center debris was taken to be sifted through.
The illnesses include sarcoidosis, a permanent lung condition; asthma; reactive airway disorders; chronic coughs, and emergency workers with glass lodged in their lung tissue, according to medical records reviewed by the Daily News.
"If I got a cancer after working in the terrible conditions cops, firefighters, construction workers did and developed a cancer a few years later, of course my first thought would be I got it there," said Dr. Stephen Levin, the medical director of the center for occupational and environmental medicine at Mount Sinai Medical Center.
But, he added, "It’s too soon. It’s impossible to say definitively there is an increase in cancer until we get a better sense of the people whose faces were in the plume there."
Dr. Kerry Kelly, chief medical officer for the FDNY, has been monitoring the health problems of firefighters since Sept. 11 and said while respiratory issues are the most prevalent problem, cancer is a major concern.
"We’ve had so many different reports from the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] we don’t know what people were exposed to. The synergy of all those substances mixed together ... we never had an exposure such as this," Kelly said. "Our concern is, what will be the long-term consequence. Cancer tends to be something that develops after years - but it’s very hard to say the cancers we are seeing weren’t caused by what happened on 9/11."
Kelly and FDNY spokesman Frank Gribbon said firefighters tend to develop cancer at a higher rate than civilians because of the toxins they are exposed to. From 1999 to the World Trade Center attacks, 104 firefighters were diagnosed with cancer. From Sept. 11, 2001, until today, that number dropped to 71.
More than 300 firefighters have retired with disabilities related to injuries and illnesses related to their work at Ground Zero, Gribbon said. There are an additional 300 disability pension cases pending, meaning that 600 firefighters are on track to retire with three-quarter pensions.
"The Fire Department is concerned about health risks. We gave medicals to every one of our people since 9/11 - active and retired firefighters," Gribbon said.
The FDNY received a $25 million federal grant to monitor health issues with firefighters. The NYPD was denied a similar grant.
NYPD Supervising Chief Surgeon Eli Kleinman, a hematologist and consultant to the city’s Trade Center health registry, said the department is "very concerned" about cops developing cancer but has not seen a spike in cases since the terror attacks.
"There are many unknowns here," Kleinman said. "There is no evidence of date of clusters of cancer or malignancies related to 9/11. One cannot rule anything in or out."
Detective John Walcott is one of those cops who has filed a notice of claim against the city seeking financial compensation after he was diagnosed with cancer last May.
The rugged, athletic 39-year-old narcotics detective and hockey coach is living with deadly acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) - a cancer his doctors believe was caused by a toxic mix of pulverized compounds he breathed in while sifting through the rubble at Ground Zero or the Fresh Kills landfill.
AML is often caused by exposure to chemicals and radiation, primarily benzene, a toxin found in airline fuel, his doctors and lawyers said. Walcott said he never smoked, rarely drinks and lives in upstate New York where he says he’s never been exposed to any carcinogens.
"I’ve never been sick a day in my life, except for a sore throat or a common cold," Walcott told The News with his attorney, David Worby, at his side. "I’ve had friends of mine who were stationed with me [at the landfill] visit me in the hospital and panic, asking me, ’Am I next?’"
This year, Walcott has undergone bone marrow transplants and a series of chemotherapy treatments, and he often wakes up in the middle of the night with blood coming out of his eyes. But the worst pain is not physical, he said.
"I missed the first year of my daughter’s life," said Walcott, whose only daughter, Colleen, recently turned 2.
"The hardest part is each day I spend with her, I think ... is this going to be the last one?" he added, before his shoulders began to shake with tears.
NYPD street crime Detective Robert Williamson, 43, became sick with pancreatic cancer in March 2003, a year after he retired from the force. Williamson, his doctors and his attorney, Michael Barach, insist he became sick inhaling carcinogens at Ground Zero 16 hours a day for five months. He never smoked and has no family history of cancer.
"It’s been a nightmare. My doctors are telling me basically to go home and die," said Williamson, a married father of three children, ages 12, 9 and 7.
"Did I know the air was not safe? Yes. Would I go down there again today knowing that? Yes. A lot of people made sacrifices," he said. "I might be a casualty of 9/11, but at least I had a few more years with my family."
Williamson is not the only potential casualty associated with the health risks of the Trade Center aftermath.
Union leaders for the police and firefighters say they’ve seen too many cases:
# Michael Palladino, president of the Detectives Endowment Association, had his members fill out a medical survey. He was disturbed by the findings.
"I have a lot of active detectives who are extremely sick. I have retired detectives, healthy people, coming down with all kinds of strange illnesses, cancers and diseases they never had before."
# Uniformed Firefighters Association President Steven Cassidy said three Brooklyn firefighters have been diagnosed with thyroid cancer since working at Ground Zero. Another has leukemia. Hundreds more have retired with asthma and other respiratory issues, he said.
"All these guys with cancer worked extensively at Ground Zero. How can anyone draw a conclusion that the cancer is not related to their work there?" Cassidy said.
# Port Authority Patrolman’s Benevolent Association President Gus Danese said his members are complaining of lung ailments, mouth sores and chronic coughs. He is bracing himself for worse.
"We lost 37 members on 9/11. Could that number go higher because of the air quality at Ground Zero and the landfill? Absolutely," Danese said. "Now the question is, what do we do?"
# Patrolman’s Benevolent Association President Pat Lynch predicted Lahm’s case would be the first of many similar ones. "Richie Lahm is just the beginning," Lynch said.
Barach, Williamson’s lawyer, has six retired city cops and six city firefighters as clients, all of whom have developed cancer since 9/11.
"I fear that a lot of guys who worked in the rescue effort were given a death sentence," Barach said. "A lot of them don’t even know it yet."
Forum posts
7 March 2005, 01:53
Doesn’t Americium cause cancer? It was also detected in the plume of materials during the aftermath. Some Veterans and Citizens know from personal experience that Americium is a byproduct of governmental thermonuclear activity.
7 March 2005, 03:55
there are all sorts of materials that could have caused serioius illness. the mysterious fires that raged for weeks in the depths of the rubble could have been caused by radioactive agents that were used to demolish the towers (they did not collapse due to the fires high up alone). other factors are tons of asbestos that was fireproofing over the steel components, and tons of mercury and other dangerous items present in wtc infrastructure and equipment - in smoke detectors, computers etc - all were vaporised into fine dust that settled for miles around.
7 March 2005, 04:37
Let’s see, 3000 dead in the attack, 1700 potential dead in the aftermath, and 1500 dead soldiers in a war that has nothing to do with the attack. The administration and president are rumored to have known in advance that all this was coming, which would make it the greatest act of treason in U.S. history and NOTHING is said in the mainstream media, not even to dismiss the claim. Oh, but Martha’s out of prison !
9 March 2005, 00:53
Chertoff’s Cousin Penned Popular Mechanics 9/11 Hit Piece (WITH ADDITIONAL BROADCAST INFORMATION)
Chistopher Bollyn for American Free Press | March 7 2005
Dictators like Saddam Hussein have always used nepotism to protect their secrets and maintain control. Like a dictatorship, the inner cabal that directs the actions of the Bush administration uses the same tactics to confuse the public and conceal the truth of 9/11.
Dictators have always employed nepotism, the placing of family members in key positions, for one simple reason: only loyal family members can be trusted with the secrets that keep them in power. For this reason the shameless nepotism of the Bush administration should alarm Americans because it indicates that a dictatorship is encroaching upon the United States.
The Defense Department defines nepotism as the situation when relatives are in the same chain-of-command.
An egregious example of dictatorial-style nepotism occurred when George W. Bush won the White House ? twice ? thanks to the key "swing state" of Florida, where the presidential candidate’s younger brother is governor. In 2000 and 2004, against all odds, Florida swung decisively, the Bush way.
With high federal offices being given to the wives, sons and daughters of senior members of the Bush administration, the Hearst Corporation executives that publish Popular Mechanics magazine probably didn’t worry about the ethical considerations of hiring a cousin of Michael Chertoff, a former Assistant Attorney General and the new Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), as senior researcher.
But the March 2005 issue of Popular Mechanics (PM) plumbs new depths of nepotism and Hearst-style "yellow journalism" with its cover story about 9/11. PM’s senior researcher, 25-year-old Benjamin Chertoff, authored a propagandistic cover story entitled "Debunking 9/11 Lies" which seeks to discredit all independent 9/11 research that challenges the official version of events.
"Conspiracy theories can’t stand up to the hard facts," the cover reads. "After an in-depth investigation, PM answers with the truth," it says. But the article fails to provide evidence to support its claims and doesn’t answer the key question: What caused the collapses of the twin towers and the 47-story World Trade Center 7?
The Chertoff article goes on to confront the "poisonous claims" of 16 "myths" spun by "extremist" 9/11 researchers like myself with "irrefutable facts," mostly provided by individuals in the employ of the U.S. government.
But who is Benjamin Chertoff, the "senior researcher" at Popular Mechanics who is behind the article? American Free Press has learned that he is none other than a cousin of Michael Chertoff, the new Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.
This means that Hearst paid Benjamin Chertoff to write an article supporting the seriously flawed explanation that is based on a practically non-existent investigation of the terror event that directly led to the creation of the massive national security department his "cousin" now heads. This is exactly the kind of "journalism" one would expect to find in a dictatorship like that of Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.
Because the manager of public relations for Popular Mechanics didn’t respond to repeated calls from American Free Press, I called Benjamin Chertoff, the magazine’s "senior researcher," directly.
Chertoff said he was the "senior researcher" of the piece. When asked if he was related to Michael Chertoff, he said, "I don’t know." Clearly uncomfortable about discussing the matter further, he told me that all questions about the article should be put to the publicist ? the one who never answers the phone.
Benjamin’s mother in Pelham, New York, however, was more willing to talk. Asked if Benjamin was related to the new Secretary of Homeland Security, Judy said, "Yes, of course, he is a cousin."
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/march2005/070305chertoffscousin.htm
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: CHERTOFF IS GOING ON WORLDWIDE AIR WAVES WITH THIS INFORMATION!!!!
Recap FROM THE MARCH 5, 2005 COAST TO COAST WITH ART BELL SHOW
http://www.coasttocoastam.com/guests/934.html
Debunking 9/11 Myths
Research editor for Popular Mechanics magazine, Ben Chertoff, discussed some of the most prevalent claims made by conspiratorial theorists regarding 9/11 and how the staff of Popular Mechanics debunked them.
According to Chertoff, one such conspiracy alleges that no fighter jets were scrambled during the 9/11 terrorist attacks because the U.S. Air Force had been ordered to stand-down. He pointed out that on 9/11 there were only 14 fighter jets on alert in the U.S., and just five within range of the hijacked flights. Chertoff said this was "standard operating procedure" for the military, which until the 9/11 attacks did not expect threats from domestic air travel. He reported that several jets were eventually launched, but were kept in a holding pattern over the Atlantic Ocean because nobody knew the exact location of the hijacked flights.
Chertoff also shed light on the role jet fuel played in the collapse of the World Trade Center. Conspiratorial theorists believe that since jet fuel does not burn hot enough to melt steel, planted explosives must have been used to bring down the buildings. While Chertoff admitted that jet fuel could not have melted the steel, he also stated that "steel doesn’t need to melt to have a collapse like we saw on September 11th." Chertoff’s research showed that the plane crashes knocked spray-on fireproofing off of the steel beams. After the jet fuel ignited fires throughout the WTC, exposed areas on the steel beams heated. The heat was transferred to the entire beam, causing them to expand and soften. This combination of events, he concluded, is what eventually caused the WTC buildings to collapse.
Related Articles
9/11 Conspiracy?
Conspiracy theorists claim this photo taken by Rob Howard and published in New York magazine shows an ’extra’ object underneath the fuselage at the base of the right wing. They speculate that this object is a bomb or a missile, and point to it as evidence that the 9/11 attacks were a U.S. military operation. Photography expert Ronald Greeley has examined the photo and thinks it’s merely a play of sunlight against the plane’s undercarriage. Read more at popularmechanics.com.
14 March 2005, 03:23
we are looking for help on the relationship of jet fuel and tonsil cancer. Our brother in law is a veteran helicopter pilot just diagnoised with this cancer. He has never smoked and this does not run in his family. Any information would be appreciated. Thank you
kjsage@aol.com