Only 24 names will be displayed for now, but that doesn’t change the fact that over 900 first responders have passed due to their 9/11 related diseases.
Firefighters and emergency-medical technicians who died of illnesses related to their service at the World Trade Center will be memorialized with a special plaque to be installed by the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Fire Department Commissioner Salvatore Cassano announced Wednesday.
The plaque will stand parallel to the Memorial Wall of Honor at FDNY headquarters in Brooklyn, which enshrines the names of those who died while in the line of duty. According to the firefighters union, the move marks a change in the FDNY’s stance on memorializing those who died of illness relating to 9/11. Union officials said they have been lobbying for years for a place on the Wall of Honor.
Mr. Cassano made the announcement during an annual memorial service that honors the members of the FDNY who died in the past year. This year, 14 members were memorialized, all of whom died as active members of the department but not while on duty. Mr. Cassano said three of them were victims of illnesses traced to their service at Ground Zero.
“In the years since Sept. 11th, we’ve realized that our jobs have become dangerous in ways that none of us could have ever imagined,” he said.
Those who gathered for the ceremony at the Firemen’s Memorial Monument on the Upper West Side, which included the families of the fallen, offered tepid applause. Initially, 24 names will be engraved into the memorial plaque which will include firefighters and emergency medical technicians, officials said.
Dear Friends, Supporters and Fellow First Responders:
As most of you are aware, the past twenty-four hours have been extremely chaotic in regards to the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act. I, along with fellow FealGood Foundation board members, have worked with various union leaders to keep the pressure on our elected officials. As of approximately 5:30 today our bill was moved into the “Rules Committee” of the United States House of Representatives and prepared for full House vote. While a modest victory, this should be considered a step forward to our ultimate goal. However, to our great displeasure, a date for such a vote has not yet been announced. This is unacceptable and over the next twenty-four hours we will continue to place additional pressure on leadership to give us the date we have waited nine years for.
Make no mistake, all involved in this struggle consider it an insult of the highest degree that we are forced to continue to lobby House leaders to merely place this bill on calendar. Despite this, we have been advised that the bill will be given a date for vote tomorrow, September 22, 2010. While promises to this fragile community have been made and broken so many times that I do not expect you to believe this one, we must respect the leadership our New York Congressional Delegation has provided and rely on them to ensure that this promise is kept. Tomorrow, the 9/11 community expects to be able to celebrate its victory at the same time Democratic leaders from around the country converge on New York for political appearances and fundraising.
The catch this time is that the bill also repeals the “Dont ask, Don’t Tell” military policy that bans openly gay service members: Something that the Republicans are sure to vote against. This is a good time to watch Dust to Dust; a 9/11 First Responders documentary if you have not seen it.
Senate Dems will try to attach 9/11 legislation to a military funding bill Tuesday in a surprise gambit to break a logjam on help for victims, the Daily News has learned.
The amendment would be identical to the $7.4 billion James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act pending in the House. Senate passage would raise the chances of getting the measure to President Obama, who vows to sign it.
Nine hundred 9/11 heroes have died since the 2001 terrorist attacks. Thousands of others are suffering from various cancers believed to have been caused by toxins at Ground Zero. The US federal government has failed, thus far, to pass 9/11 health legislation that would assist 9/11 responders with medical care.
Ex-paramedic Freddy Noboa traveled 1,100 miles with his 41 medications to Washington Wednesday, hoping to get Congress to finally pass a 9/11 health bill.
He wasn’t alone.
Dozens of other Sept. 11 responders and politicians – including Mayor Bloomberg – made the trip, intent on prodding the consciences of lawmakers who next week are expected to vote on that bill.
He made it to Washington yesterday to help the cause of the $7.4billion James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act so people like him can get care and afford to live.
The lawyers representing most of the ground zero workers who sued the city over health issues will be appearing in court in a new role: defending themselves.
The federal judge overseeing the cases has summoned the law partnership of two firms, Worby Groner Edelman and Napoli Bern Ripka, to a hearing on Friday to justify $6.1 million in legal expenses that they are charging their clients.
Next week, the lawyers are due back in federal court to respond to accusations of overcharging made by the other leading law firm representing workers. That firm, Sullivan Papain Block McGrath & Cannavo, alleges that its co-counsel is trying to inflate its fees by inappropriately charging clients more than $400,000 for publicists, lobbyists and legal and medical experts as case-related costs.
A group of advocates consisting of 9/11 first responders and the widows of their colleagues gathered in Hauppauge Wednesday to garner support in their fight to get the 9/11 health bill, officially known as the Zadroga Bill, passed through Congress.
Jennifer McNamara, whose husband John logged more than 500 hours at Ground Zero and died of cancer in 2009, expressed her grief and frustration at the rally. “My husband died believing this bill would pass,” she said, joined by her young son, Jack.
If passed, the bill, named after the late NYPD Detective James Zadroga, would secure $7.4 billion to provide health care and compensation for thousands of first responders suffering from illnesses after working in the toxic rubble following the terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. McNamara believes that if the bill had been passed already, her husband may still be alive today.
Republican Gubernatorial candidate Rick Lazio hasnt been shy about his opposition to the proposed Islamic Center and mosque near Ground Zero. Lazio has been the most vocal of the current slate of candidates in expressing any opinion about the project.
But Lazios latest ad about the proposed mosque and Islamic cultural center is ruffling some feathers with New York’s first responders.
Lazio recently released a two-minute video that is a collage of various opinions from people filmed near Ground Zero. The video also features images taken on September 11, 2001, depicting firefighters running into the debris of the former World Trade Center Towers.
The Uniformed Fire Officers Association and the NYPD’s Sergeants Benevolent Association have sent Lazios letters denouncing the use of the 9/11 footage.
DEADLINE: 9/11 First Responders Urged To Register For Compensations
Weeks after its defeat in the House of Representatives, members of Congress are still vowing to bring the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act up for another vote this fall.
But advocates say without guarantees it will pass a second time around, it makes an upcoming state compensation deadline for workers who have become ill or may become ill as a result of 9/11 exposure even more urgent. NY1 Health & Fitness reporter Kafi Drexel filed the following report.
This is the court case under Judge Alvin Hellerstein, it is not related to the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensatiuon Act that recently failed to pass in the House.
Growing discontent among 9/11 heroes who sued the city over exposure to toxic air at Ground Zero could scuttle a landmark settlement offer.
A number of first responders, recovery workers and their relatives told the Daily News they will opt out of the $625 million deal because their payouts are too low – and their health care is left in doubt.
“If you sign this thing, you’re not taken care of at all,” said Richard Hand, 47, a retired NYPD Emergency Service Unit officer who logged more than 700 hours at the Pile and now suffers from upper-digestive problems.
Retired NYPD Emergency Service Unit Sgt. John Boesch, who dug for survivors on 9/11 and worked at least 600 hours in the World Trade Center rubble, received an offer of $3,250, the sum awarded to all plaintiffs with no illness.
But based on his settlement letter, his take after lawyer fees and expenses dwindles to $1,322 — only 40 percent of the total.
Boesch’s legal expenses and fees come to $1,927.81, including $579.94 for “return of interest expense.”
“I don’t know loan sharks who charge that much,” said Boesch, 52, adding that this was the first he heard of such charges.
The emergency rescue workers who responded to the terror attacks and collapse of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, were exposed to a dense cloud of pulverized building materials and products of the combustion. Many of the first responders were rescue workers from the Fire Department of New York (FDNY) and the emergency medical service (EMS). For most of these workers (10,870 from FDNY and 1911 EMS workers), records of routine lung function tests that predated 9/11 were available. Therefore, it was possible to accurately determine the acute effects of the exposure that occurred after the attack.[1]
In this article from Aldrich and colleagues, the long-term results of the workers’ exposures are detailed. For firefighters, the mean decline in lung function (FEV1) was 439 mL in the first year after exposure, most of which occurred in the first 6 months; for EMS workers, the corresponding loss was 267 mL. The losses were greater among workers who were at the scene on the first day and among those who accumulated more weeks and months working at the site after the event. Loss of lung function did not differ significantly between smokers and nonsmokers. Over the following 6 years, essentially none of the acutely lost lung function was recovered, and losses between 1 and 6 years after 9/11 occurred at about the same rate as in normal individuals.
As I previously pointed out, the Gulf oil spill is very similar to 9/11, because – in both cases – the responders helping with rescue and clean up were getting sick … but were told they don’t need any safety gear. And see this.
In addition, the government is keeping scientists away from “ground zero” of the oil spill and – for that reason – scientists cannot accurately measure the size of the oil spill.
The government is complicit in all of these cover-ups. Indeed, the Obama administration has made it a felony to get near enough to oiled wildlife and beaches to film them.
The judge who approved the settlement for thousands of 9/11 first responders exposed to toxic World Trade Center dust wants other defendants to join it.
U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein released a statement Friday urging hundreds of other defendants to consider participating in the settlement. They include workers involved in the extensive cleanup of buildings surrounding ground zero.
Posted by Brian 
