Archive of News (2006)

Our Slow Death

ON Sept. 11, 2001, I was a lieutenant in the Port Authority Police Department. After the attack, I became the night commander of the rescue and recovery operation at ground zero, charged with recovering the remains of my fellow officers and the thousands of other victims of the World Trade Center collapse.

City Announces Plan to Deal With Health Problems Relating to Ground Zero

Facing criticism for its response to health problems related to the Sept. 11 terror attack, the city is creating a wide-ranging program to evaluate, treat and monitor those who may have been sickened by their exposure to hazardous materials at ground zero, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said yesterday.

Veterans of Sept. 11

One of the worst things about listening to those who rushed to ground zero after the attacks on Sept. 11 is that you can barely hear their stories. For many, the lungs hardly work. The cough, the ragged breathing, the confusion and even the bitterness make it hard for some of those who labored in that toxic cloud to explain how they feel forgotten.

Congress Criticizes Federal Response to Illnesses After 9/11 and Seeks More Spending

After listening to recovery workers at ground zero and downtown residents emotionally describe how they had been ignored and insulted as they sought help for health problems after 9/11, members of a Congressional subcommittee roundly criticized the federal response yesterday and called for sharply increased medical spending.

New Yorkers, in a Poll, Doubt Safety of 9/11 Air

New Yorkers believe the air quality in Lower Manhattan after the Sept. 11 attacks was more dangerous than officials said at the time, according to a New York Times/CBS News Poll.

Enough studies we need action

In reporting that the health crisis afflicting Ground Zero rescue and recovery workers is deeper and more persistent than even they had recognized, doctors at Mount Sinai Medical Center yesterday put a rapier-fine point on the urgent need for aggressive action.

The Other Victims of Sept. 11

Nobody knows exactly how many people rushed to help after the attack on the World Trade Center five years ago. The working estimate is 40,000, and it includes not only New York firefighters, police officers, ironworkers and neighborhood volunteers but also communications workers from Chicago and rescuers from California.

Illness Persisting in 9/11 Workers, Big Study Finds

The largest health study yet of the thousands of workers who labored at ground zero shows that the impact of the rescue and recovery effort on their health has been more widespread and persistent than previously thought, and is likely to linger far into the future.

Officials Slow to Hear Claims of 9/11 Illnesses

Five years after the World Trade Center towers collapsed in a vortex of dust and ash, government officials have only recently begun to take a role in the care of many of the 40,000 responders and recovery workers who were made sick by toxic materials at ground zero.

$400M for lawyers? The sick and dying of 9-11 deserve better

WITHIN WEEKS OF 9/11, it was already clear to New York officials that Ground Zero rescue and recovery workers were serving under such hazardous conditions that the city and its cleanup contractors were likely to face more than $2 billion in damage claims.