In the minutes following the attacks on the World Trade Center, the paramedics, firefighters and others who risked their lives to save others weren’t thinking about the chemical content of the dust they were inhaling with every breath. Six years later, many of them are battling illnesses because of that dust, and the media is starting to pay attention.
For many of them, though, it didn’t take that long to catch on to the root cause of their health problems. Marvin Bethea, a paramedic who suffered a stroke a month after the attacks, has this to say to Voice of America reporter Carolyn Weaver:
"Think of someone taking a big bucket of toxic dirt and just dumping it down your throat. Not only could you not see, you could not breathe at all. I was covered from head to toe, and we were literally blowing out small pieces of concrete out of our nose. I sound very nasally -- all of this is burnt up inside."Paramedic Ryan McCormick, whose Hodgkin’s disease has been unusually difficult to fight, told Bill Chair of Newshouse:
"There's no way you can tell us what was floating around down there was at all healthy,'' McCormick said. "There's no way. You're not supposed to see the air floating in front of you. You're not supposed to put on a respirator and have the canister clog immediately.''What were they inhaling? Smoke from fires, for starters. Diesel fuel. Glass and cement dust. And, reports Chair, “asbestos, lead, hydrochloric acid, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and pesticides.†With that toxic brew in their lungs, it can’t come as a surprise that 70,000 people have already joined the World Trade Center Health Registry.
A bill to be introduced today by members of New York’s Congressional delegation would fund health care for those exposed to the dust. The 9/11 Health and Compensation Act would allow those at risk access to health monitoring, and it would pay for treatment of several illnesses linked to the toxic dust.
Minds across the country will turn today to the victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks – and well they should. Increased media focus on the public health implications of that day will help ensure that none of the victims are forgotten.