By DEVLIN BARRETT
Associated Press Writer
SOURCE:
http://www.policeone.com/terrorism/articles/127399/
NEW YORK- More than four years have passed
since retired fire marshal Joe Sykes walked into
an asbestos-choked dust cloud on Sept. 11. His
health deteriorated so badly and so fast that he
had to retire a year later.
"I started coughing that day, and I haven't
stopped yet," said Sykes, 49.
"I think a lot about what was in the air, half
of it you don't even know what was there, but
everything was pulverized, it's not like you saw
computers or anything in the debris. We were
breathing everything, animal plant or mineral,
you name it," he said.
Government experts are still trying to figure
out exactly what that exposure did to Sykes and
thousands of others on Sept. 11, but they will
not have answers anytime soon.
Health officials say it could take 20 years to
find definite links between the toxic cloud and
subsequent diseases or deaths, because most
cancers take that long or even longer to develop
and decades of statistics are needed to prove a
relationship.
"It seems like they're trying to do the right
thing, and it's good to help people in the
future, but they don't have any answers for us
now," said Sykes, who worked at the on-site
morgue at ground zero until the end of October
2001, when he went on leave. "It's frustrating
for me, and frustrating for my family. When they
get those answers, are we still going to be
alive?"
The issue has taken on greater prominence in
recent months amid reports that some Sept. 11
workers are dying of various ailments that their
families blame on ground zero exposure.
Spurred by New York lawmakers of both parties,
Congress has spent more than $100 million
(euro82 million) to provide health programs for
ground zero workers. Sykes signed up for one of
them, a screening program run by Mount Sinai.
"I've done the questionnaires and I've gone for
medicals. They send a questionnaire now and then
and I fill it out and sometimes they call me and
I answer questions."
In an aging city office building in lower
Manhattan, less than a dozen city workers and
researchers are working on a project they hope
will eventually answer Sykes' questions. The
World Trade Center Health Registry has gathered
information from 71,437 people who worked at
ground zero or were in the area at the time of
the attacks.
Described by New York City's deputy health
commissioner Lorna Thorpe as "a Rolodex" of
those affected by Sept. 11, the registry is the
largest such effort in the United States.
However, the registry conducts no medical exams
or screening like the program at Mount Sinai.
Instead, it uses mailings and phone calls to
collect updates from people who signed up for
the program.
Mount Sinai's program is designed to track
symptoms among rescue workers and construction
workers; the city registry is a much broader
effort to monitor, over a period of decades, a
huge population including everyday residents who
happened to be nearby in case they develop
health problems.
It costs the city $46 (euro37) per person per
year to keep in touch with the registrants, who
will receive the first follow-up questionnaire
this month, a 12- or 16-page form asking for
more details of their exposure, and an update on
any symptoms.
Thorpe and researchers warn it may take 20 years
before doctors can answer what Sept. 11 did _
and did not do _ to the legions of emergency
personnel, civilians, and others engulfed in the
airborne remains of two 110-story buildings.
"We're trying to identify as quickly as possible
mortality trends, but the challenge is, how
quickly can we provide information that's
robust?" said Thorpe.
Critics of the health programs say the research
is useless if it cannot be used to help those
who are suffering now.
"They've done nothing with all that data," said
Pat Lynch, president of the city's police union,
the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association.
"If we're looking 10 or 20 years down the road,
then we're talking about a body count. I'm not
looking to do a body count, I'm talking about
finding out what problems exist and treating
them. We're not there to fill someone's filing
cabinet," said Lynch.
Even a running death count is beyond the ability
of the registry. City officials say they do not
currently know how many ground zero workers have
died, and it will take many more months to
cross-check their registry against the National
Death Index, considered the definitive record of
deaths in the United States.
However, that index lags by as much as two
years, so even when the registry does complete
its first post-Sept. 11 death count, it will
only reflect deaths from 2004 or earlier.
Dr. C.J. Yzermans, an epidemiologist from the
Netherlands Institute for Health Services
Research specializing in post-disaster public
health, said the Sept. 11 health programs and
the press stories about illnesses have made the
situation more confusing for survivors.
Yzermans said his past research found intense
media attention on catastrophic events spurs
more health complaints.
"People learn their complaints and diseases from
the papers. The papers are enlarging complaints,
and then you have epidemics among survivors, but
it's only on the symptom level. They do not have
disease," said Yzermans.
___
Many experts agree that there has been powerful
anecdotal evidence recent about the debilitating
effects of working amid the dust cloud of ground
zero. But other cases are less convincing.
As an occupational safety officer for the
federal government, George Allen was assigned to
ground zero for a week in November 2001.
Allen recently had a section of his intestine
removed as he battles stage-four colon cancer.
He does not blame all of his cancer on Sept. 11,
but said the exposure spurred his disease.
"You can't ignore the anecdotal evidence just
because it's anecdotal," said Allen. "I
undoubtedly had some degree of cancer, but the
World Trade Center promoted that cancer."
Through its worker compensation program, the
U.S. government has taken a dim view of any
injury claim not directly from the day of the
attacks.
Allen, 46, was one of the 485 federal employees
to file for workers compensation claiming
injuries from the aftermath at ground zero.
Virtually all of those claims, some 478, were
either rejected by the government or abandoned.
Of the claims stemming from the day of the
attacks, the government approved nearly all 987
of those.
New York state received 8,491 injury and
exposure claims due to the events of Sept. 11 or
the cleanup effort. About 680 _ less than 10
percent _ remain unresolved, but New York state
insists it still has no idea how many of its
resolved claims were granted or rejected.
Allen, who wore a respirator when he was in the
"hot zone," but not elsewhere, has his own
theory as to why so many rescue personnel are
sick.
"My job was to walk around and talk to the
officers and give them guidance on what was
safe. When we advised them to wear respirators
in the zone, a lot of them would literally give
us the finger. I think they had survivor's guilt
so they refused to use them."
___
Like most Americans on Sept. 11, Kevin Riley
first learned of the attacks by seeing them on
live television.
Riley, 48, rushed to the Staten Island firehouse
where he worked. The regular shift had already
left, but Riley and others commandeered a city
bus to get to the Staten Island ferry, where
other off-duty firefighters had assembled.
As the boat docked in Manhattan, the second
building collapsed, and the men made their way
north to the site.
Riley ended up working on the debris pile until
March, and retired in 2003 on a medical
disability due to greatly reduced lung capacity
and serious heart problems.
As a rescuer who approached from the south,
Riley would be of particular interest to
researchers, because one untested theory is that
those who came to ground zero from that
direction may have been exposed to more harmful
airborne material as the cloud moved toward
them.
Riley chose not to enroll in the medical
screening programs.
"Some guys say it helps and some guys say it
doesn't, I don't know. We're all in the same
boat, walking around huffing and coughing," said
Riley.
"Hopefully that's the worst that will happen to
us. I guess we'll be crossing our fingers for
the next 20 years."
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