5-19-06, 9:17 am

More and more news reports point to increases in serious ailments, especially lung illnesses, among workers who toiled at ground zero after the terrorist destruction of the World Trade Center (WTC) on Sept. 11, 2001. Now, it turns out former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s own deputy mayor has suffered from lung ailments he says were caused by the toxic chemicals released at the WTC site.

Today’s New York Times reports:

“Rudy Washington’s health has deteriorated significantly,” a friend, Randy M. Mastro, who was chief of staff and then deputy mayor for operations under Mr. Giuliani, said last night. “He’s suffering severe respiratory problems. He has an asthmatic condition for the first time ever. He now has to take multiple medications. He has had to be rushed to the emergency room on multiple occasions because of those breathing problems.” Even as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) tries to settle Washington’s compensation claims, a new health study co-authored by the New York City Fire Department (FDNY) shows New York City firefighters suffered a significant decline in their lung capacity after working at ground zero. In fact, the study finds more than 400 chemicals in the toxic World Trade Center air.

According to the New York Post:

The FDNY’s chief medical officer, Dr. David Prezant, who is a study co-author and Einstein College professor, considered the discrepancy in the rate of illnesses—based on when firefighters and EMTs arrived at the disaster site—the most significant scientific finding. Pollution and debris were most prevalent when the buildings crashed, and dissipated in time.

“The closer you were to the morning of the collapse,” Prezant said, “the worst drop in symptoms and pulmonary function.”

In the weeks after Sept. 11, then-Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Christine Todd Whitman assured the public the site was safe, according to Democracy Now. In August 2002, President Bush vetoed a bill that included $90 million to monitor the health of rescue and clean-up workers who were at ground zero following the terrorist destruction of the World Trade Center, Sept. 11, 2001.

A year later, it was revealed that just days after the Sept. 11 tragedy, the Bush White House pressured the EPA to tone down reports about the potential health hazards resulting from the buildings’ collapse.

Meanwhile, we may just be learning how deadly the site really was. According to the Times, the Uniformed Firefighters Association earlier this year linked the deaths of two firefighters and a battalion chief—from lung disease and respiratory ailments. Further:

…three young emergency medical technicians who worked in the dust and smoke at ground zero have died from pulmonary diseases and coronary problems aggravated by their battered lungs, according to the union that represented them.

The three paramedics, members of AFSCME District Council 37 (DC 37), include Deborah Reeve, who died March 15 at age 41. According to DC 37’s Public Employee Press:

During the eight-month recovery period, Reeve was assigned at various times to the morgue at Ground Zero, where she helped medical examiners identify body parts from the rubble.

Pat Bahnken, president of AFSCME 2507, Reeve’s local union, puts it bluntly:

This should not be happening. And it’s happening not only to our members, but also to construction workers and everybody that worked down there.

Jordan Barab, who covers job safety and health issues at Confined Space, has excerpts from several other recent news stories that explore the link between workers’ exposure to the toxic dust and debris and diseases and death.