City out to cripple 9/11 claims, say docs

BY PAUL H.B. SHIN
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

City lawyers are "fishing for information" at medical gatherings that could be used to undermine claims for 9/11-related health problems, doctors and union officials charged yesterday.

Two attorneys from the Law Department attended a meeting last week that organizers said was intended for doctors and advocates to have a frank discussion about how to treat patients suffering from illnesses believed linked to Ground Zero toxins.

"This was an outrage," said Micki Siegel De Hernandez, health and safety director of the Communications Workers of America. "We never would have participated in the meeting if we knew that the city Law Department was there fishing for information they could use against future claims."...

...The controversy emerged as the city Health Department launched the second phase of the World Trade Center Health Registry, which will resurvey the 71,000 participants to see if they have lasting ailments resulting from the terror attacks.

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RELATED: Their '9/11 plague'

BY RIDGELY OCHS
Newsday Staff Writer

A study published last month showed the average decline in lung function among firefighters who were at Ground Zero one year after Sept. 11 was the equivalent of 12 years of aging.

Doctors who treat World Trade Center responders say they are surprised almost five years later by the growing number seeking help for the first time - 100 people a month in the biggest monitoring program - and by the severity of illnesses among Sept. 11 workers already in treatment.

"There's no question there's continuing demand and many in the treatment program are quite ill," said Dr. Robin Herbert, codirector of the World Trade Center Worker and Volunteer Medical Screening Program at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan.

Herbert, whose program has examined about 15,000 responders since 2002, said doctors are finding "remarkable persistence" in breathing disorders such as chronic sinusitis and asthma, stomach ailments such as gastrointestinal reflux disease and psychological problems such as post-traumatic stress disorder - a suite of maladies one survivor called "my 9/11 plague."...

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