9/11 rescue workers

9/11's delayed legacy: cancer for many of the rescue workers

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/11/cancer-new-york-rescuers

A spate of cancer-related illnesses among New York's rescue services who worked at Ground Zero sparks fear of an epidemic
Ed Pilkington in New York
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 11 November 2009 14.36 GMT

A spate of recent deaths of New York police and fire officers who took part in the emergency operation at Ground Zero after the 9/11 attacks has heightened fears that it could be the start of a delayed epidemic of cancer-related illness.

Five firefighters and police officers, all of whom were involved in the rescue and clear-up at the site of the collapsed Twin Towers, have died of cancer in the past three months, the oldest being 44. Three died last month within a four-day period.

Those three were Robert Grossman, a Harlem-based police officer who spent several weeks at the emergency site and died of a brain tumour aged 41; fellow police officer Cory Diaz, 37; and firefighter Richard Mannetta, 44.

In addition, John McNamara, a 44-year-old firefighter, died in September; and Renee Dunbar, a police officer in her late 30s, died in August.

Agreement gives more 9/11 workers health benefits

No comment necessary. Far too little, way too late.

The Associated Press
Friday, June 20, 2008; 6:28 PM

ALBANY, N.Y. -- Gov. David Paterson said Friday that he has reached an agreement with New York state legislative leaders to extend health benefits to hundreds of workers who toiled at the World Trade Center site after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

More than 8,800 New York City workers applied for a "presumptive accidental disability retirement benefit" for illnesses they developed after working at ground zero after the attacks.

Paterson says the legislation will benefit more than 1,000 workers who were turned down because they didn't get physical exams before they were hired, which had been a requirement to obtain the benefit.

The new law gives them benefits if they provide access to medical records and demonstrate they didn't have the health problems beforehand.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/20/AR2008062002478.html?hpid=sec-health

I'm a patriot, protests Moore

Source: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21941282-2703,00.html

I'm a patriot, protests Moore

David Nason, New York correspondent

21jun07

HE is America's best-known left-wing agitator and for years his love of country has been under question, with the Bush administration and its supporters leading the charge.

But now documentary filmmaker Michael Moore says he has joined the mainstream and will no longer tolerate people branding him anti-American.

"Don't ever question my patriotism," a clean-shaven, besuited Moore bellowed at a questioner at New York's plush Regency Hotel on Park Avenue yesterday where he was promoting Sicko, a new documentary that tears the scab off the profit-driven US health system.

"I am a patriotic American. The most patriotic thing you can do is question your government, especially when they're screwing up like they are by not providing healthcare to our 9/11 rescue workers."

There was even a new, star-spangled element to Moore's trademark condemnation of President George W. Bush and the war in Iraq.

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