[I still care]

My mom lives on Long Island. A couple of days after 9/11, she developed a pneumonia that wouldn't quit for at least a month. She pooh-poohed any thought it might be from toxic dust from the WTC, but I have always thought it was. It was the first time she had a lung infection of such virulence that I can remember.

[Carborundum]

Pneumonia on Long Island attributed to the debris cloud? I've heard a couple of talks over the past year or so by Dr. Herbert's colleagues from the Mt. Sinai clinic, and I don't remember them raising this as an issue in the GZ workers they've been following. So I guess I'd be surprised if your fears are correct. Even if the part of LI your mother lives in is Brooklyn Heights.

Instead, I'd wonder about another possibility. If your mother was like so many of us in the tristate region, she was overwhelmed with shock and sorrow. And, if she was like me (and many others with close ties to the city and the financial district) there was also unspeakable rage, such as we never have felt before (even after the Florida State Supreme Court decision in 2000). For me, there was no easy place to channel my emotions. I know I was not sleeping or eating well during those days. I'm sure my stress hormones were sky high. And high stress hormones (cortisol, etc) can inhibit your immune system and lower your resistance to microbial pathogens--both viral and bacterial. In a susceptible individual, this could easily lead to respiratory infections that could evolve into pneumonia.