Judge Finds NYC Must Answer To Sending Workers Into Toxic Environments

FINALLY! This should be BIG news for First Responders all over the country. Nothing more than mere drywall masks were provided to most workers

Now if only someone can get that bitch Christine Whitman before the bench, we may get a foot in the door of the Whitehouse before the pResident escapes to his family's new 100,000 acre ranch in Paraguay.

"If even a minority of the plaintiffs suffered serious injuries to their respiratory tracts arising from the acrid air of September 11, their claims deserve to be heard when a recovery could make a difference in their lives… The scar to the public interest needs to be cleansed, speedily, in good time." the judge wrote in his opinion.

"The workers at the site were presented with a dangerous environment, below and surrounding their work activities, threatening their health and safety," the judge said.

“The fact-intensive nature of the issue makes its resolution unsuitable for resolution by motion,” Judge Hellerstein concluded. “Discovery, additional proceedings and a more extensive factual record, and perhaps a trial, will be required.”

Judge Hellerstein wrote that long after the attacks, there were "critical lapses in the enforcement of safety standards and in the dissemination of vital information about the safety of the air at Ground Zero to those most affected, the workers themselves."

Judge Hellerstein did dismiss Con Edison and companies owned by developer Larry Silverstein as defendants. But the various contractors the city hired remain defendants, according to the ruling.

CAN YOU SAY "CONTROLLED DEMOLITION"?????

http://www.nyctv.com/nyc_silverstein_culpable_911_toxins.htm

Judge Finds NYC and Silverstein Must Answer To Sending Workers Into Toxic Environments
NEW YORK

Government Will Have to Answer With Silverstein
New York City and State officials along with a slew of Larry Silverstein contractors were knocked back a loop as they tried to deny any culpability in sending workers into toxic laced environments during the months of cleanup in NYC after 911.

We can all recall Christine Whitman telling all of New York city and the world that day and the next that the air quality was just fine and everyone should get back to work. Nothing more than mere drywall masks were provided to most workers along with this fraudulent synopsis of the air quality.

As the exact duplicity of the Federal government has not been ascertained yet, because of the negligence of the State’s prosecutor Elliot Spitzer to bring Whitman to trial, the people most affected now are those workers who cleaned up the mess the demolition of the three towers and inhaled their toxic residues. A toxic brew that is spelled out in the FEMA report of just what the dust contained in the various locations. None of which would qualify as safe to breathe, even for the likes of Spitzer.

Late yesterday Judge Alvin K. Hellerstien [sic] dismissed the claims by Con Ed and Larry Silverstein companies that they should not be culpable for sending workers into toxic filled waste when they had no legal control over the area. The judge sees that Larry and Co. are going to see the responsibility through to their workers. Allowing them to go into this work knowing that the toxic levels were so high should be criminal.

"If even a minority of the plaintiffs suffered serious injuries to their respiratory tracts arising from the acrid air of September 11, their claims deserve to be heard when a recovery could make a difference in their lives… The scar to the public interest needs to be cleansed, speedily, in good time." the judge wrote in his opinion.

A newly released report showed that 7 out of 10 workers on the site that day are now suffering respiratory illness. Other reports show the regular civilian populations of Brooklyn and lower Manhattan are showing a vast increase in new cancers and scaring of the lungs.

When the toxins in the dust are factored into the lungs of some 14 million daily workers, and those that passed through the zone of poisons those days following the demolitions there is no doubt that the toll of deaths related to 911 in NYC will be in the millions.

MORE:

Oct. 18, 2006, 10:48AM
Judge: Ground Zero Lawsuits Reasonable
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/4268243.html

Judge allows 9/11 lawsuits to go forward
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110AP_Attacks_Lawsuits.html

Judge: NYC open to Ground Zero claims Houston Chronicle
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/4267581.html

Many Ground Zero Workers Gain Chance at Lawsuits New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/18/nyregion/nyregionspecial3/18toxic.html?ref=nyregion

Judge refuses to grant immunity from 9/11 lawsuits Newsday
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--attacks-lawsuits1017oct17,0,4915395.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork

all 195 news articles »
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&hs=zRz&lr=&client=opera&rls=en&ct=title&ie=ISO-8859-1&ncl=http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/...

these people will not get justice unless

they are allowed to find out who really caused their illness--not just the poeple who lied about the air, but the people who contaminated it in the first place.

some people are sitting on fortunes that rightfully belong to the victims and their families.

Larry Silverstein is one of them.

____

Real Truther a.k.a. Verdadero Verdadero

WTCdemolition.com - Harvard Task Force

 

If these contractors

had any sense, they would settle out of court now for huge, huge sums. I am hoping they won't so that this will draw out and get more publicity. The judge sounds like he wants this case to come to a speedy resolution. That would not be good for justice in the long-run. It would cut out those higher up who are culpable. It would basically absolve Whitman.

I feel for the plaintiffs and their families because they need medical care now and also assurance that they will receive future compensation. So there will be enormous pressure on them to settle and settle soon. I hope and pray they won't. But I certainly can not blame them if they do.

see blog post Odor in the Court

anyway let's suppose the city is found liable... GREAT! Just what New York taxpayers need--to be burdened by the costs that should rightly be paid by certain billionaires and their oily cronies...

That's OK, New York will just borrow the money necessary and the children of the afflicted will enjoy paying interest on their parents' claims long into the future.

I think I'm starting to get sickened, too.

____

Real Truther a.k.a. Verdadero Verdadero

WTCdemolition.com - Harvard Task Force