9/11 injury compensation and environmental disaster
A report published in the New Yorker magazine in September 2008, sparked fears for thousands of rescue workers who provided rescue services at Ground Zero after the World Trade Centre bombings in 2001 and who are still awaiting the outcome of their injury compensation litigation.
The report suggests that a NYPD detective, widely reported to have been the first emergency responder to die of a 9/11 related-illness, may not have succumbed to the toxic chemicals of Ground Zero after all.
The police officer died in January 2006 from lung disease attributed to the fact that as an emergency responder an officer on the scene immediately after the airplanes collided with the twin towers he breathed in a toxic mix of chemicals that caused respiratory ailments and led subsequently to his death.
The report revealed that a 2003 lung biopsy had not revealed any traces of the chemicals largely found in emergency workers who have become ill as a result of dust inhalation at Ground Zero. Controversially a city medical examiner stated that improper use of prescription drugs had contributed to the officer's lung disease. However an autopsy and further medical tests concluded serious illness caused by the detective's work at the Word Trade Centre site contributed to his death.
When the skyscrapers collapsed on September 11, 2001, a noxious cloud of concrete dust, glass fibres and cancer-causing asbestos, as well as particles of lead, chlorine, antimony, aluminum, magnesium, iron, zinc and calcium filled the streets of Manhattan. According to 2004 scientific analysis, the 24,000 gallons of jet fuel and burning plastics that released carcinogens including dioxins, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, polychlorinated biphenyls and polychlorinated furins, represents the "largest acute environmental disaster that has ever befallen New York City."
A spokesperson for the regulators of the September 11 Victim Compensation Fund says the effect of the report will have minimal effect on the cases of 11,000 emergency workers who are embroiled in legal battle with the city to claim injury compensation for their 9/11 related-illnesses.
He added, "The cases are so specific to the individual, in terms of the medical corroboration and the exposure to dust on 9/11. It's better not to draw long-term conclusions from one case about the thousands of other cases."
Injury compensation after environmental disaster
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