Your house is on fire with your kids inside.
Would you wait for an oxygen tank & mask first?
Same mindset for those who helped clear the remains of WTC.
The house fire is immediate life or death. Clearing debris for weeks and months is not. No need to do permanent damage to yourself.
A friend of mine was cutting his basement floor with a concrete saw. I told him he should wear a mask. I wore one, he didn’t. When he was finished, he was doubled over coughing and ended up coughing for days. Why did he do that?
I see people running commercial mowers all day, every day with no hearing protection. Their hearing will eventually be a wreck. Why do that?