Posted on 03/27/2004 5:40:05 AM PST by NYC GOP Chick
housands of people who live or work in Lower Manhattan and were exposed to the dust plume after the World Trade Center attack would be eligible to undergo health screening under a bill expected to be introduced in Congress on Monday.
The legislation would greatly expand an existing health monitoring program that covers New York City firefighters and about 12,000 others who responded to the attacks.
Residents, office workers and federal employees who are not now eligible would be able to undergo screening and then enter the long-term health-monitoring program.
And for the first time, money would be made available to pay for health care expenses and prescription drugs for people without health insurance.
Representative Carolyn B. Maloney, a Manhattan Democrat, is cosponsoring the bill with Christopher Shays, Republican of Stamford, Conn., who has conducted hearings on the aftermath of 9/11.
Ms. Maloney said the expanded screening was needed because so much was still not known about the health impact of the dust cloud and the hazards it contained.
"Right now, the only people coming forward are people who think they are sick," Ms. Maloney said. "The point of screening is that we don't know what is going to develop."
Questions about the health risks posed by the dust cloud have been raised since federal environmental officials said, a few days after the attacks, that the air in Lower Manhattan was safe to breathe. Officials have since conceded that this declaration had been too broad.
Efforts to set up health screening programs were at first resisted by the federal government, and money was made available only after substantial pressure from New York's Congressional delegation.
An existing program at Mount Sinai Medical Center has already screened more than 9,200 people, and thousands more are waiting to be seen. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton was instrumental in getting the federal government to establish the program and to provide $90 million to continue monitoring the health of people who have been screened.
But the release of that money was delayed for several months; it did not become available until last week.
More than 40,000 people exposed to the dust could end up being screened and monitored. The sponsors do not have an estimate of its cost.
Dr. Robin Herbert, co-director of the World Trade Center Worker and Volunteer Medical Screening Program at Mt. Sinai, said that half of those screened had shown signs of respiratory ailments.
However, with few exceptions, the screening program has not been able to provide treatment for ailing workers. Some have filed claims with the workers' compensation system, while others covered by health insurance have gone to family doctors.
For those without health insurance or union benefits, there has been almost no help, Ms. Maloney said.
Jogging around it while clutching a grande latte! Thanks for the kind words -- I suppose I was lucky enough that if I had to be there, I was to the immediate east of the site, which turned out to be the least dangerous place to be. But I'd give *anything* not to have been there - and not to have the memories and nightmares that still haunt me. That's what drives me crazy about these people trying to glom on and pretend that they were personally affected: they have no idea that what they're wishing for themselves is beyond hideous and would haunt them for the rest of their lives.
Ms. Maloney said the expanded screening was needed because so much was still not known about the health impact of the dust cloud and the hazards it contained. "Right now, the only people coming forward are people who think they are sick," Ms. Maloney said. "The point of screening is that we don't know what is going to develop."
So naturally, we must screen everone who had even the briefest exposure to the cloud, and the federal government must pay. After giving billions to this city, it's not enough, we have demands we haven't BEGUN to make yet.
How about people just say "I dodged a real bullet on 9/11, I could have been killed in an act of war and yet here I am alive", instead of "those damned capitalists put bad stuff in thir buildings and somebody's gotta pay now"?
Since the World Trade Center was a unique set of buildings, and any future attacks/ building collapses will probably bear only a slight resemblance to them, yes. The "health screening" isn't going to yield a lot of useful information, it will cost a fortune, and it will be used as a precedent to provide free extended medical care to anyone who is near anyplace where anything bad happens. Then it's only a small step to request it when disasters don't happen.
Too true, and too sad. One of the saddest songs post-9/11 was written (at least it's said) by a subway musician. It's called "Ashes of My Friends".
That's the spirit! Whenever something can't be predicted with absolute certainty, sue the city's pants off. I might get sick someday due to the air I've been breathing all my life, not just since 9/11. Heck, I don't know all the potential long term affects of the food I put into my mouth last night. Who can I sue?
Right. And they're trying to turn us into a bunch of weaklings and wimps!
I still work within three blocks of GZ.
You and I probably cross paths on a regular basis. :)
I'm talking about people who live on the Upper West Side and were no further south than W.57th Street for the duration of the attacks (from the first tower being hit until both collapsed), and who were bitching about it months later.
I'm also talking about a screechy leftist hag who lives by the FDR Drive near Houston Street and was blaming all her woes on *allegedly* breathing those fumes.
I'm just wondering how I -- although I didn't work on the "pile" -- was here when the towers were hit (close enough to have been covered with tiny glass shards from the North tower), was caught up in the debris cloud when they collapsed, was back here a few days later to get stuff from my apartment and moved back a week after that, yet people who were miles away seem to have more health problems from this than I do.
OK, that settles it. You and I have *definitely* crossed paths! :)
We coughed for weeks afterwards but show no signs now. Twenty years from now will tell the story. I'm not at all surprised that some others who worked there in the first days are having problems.
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