A new autopsy attributing a 34-year-old New York police detective's death
this year to exposure to toxic Sept. 11 dust should spur the government to do
more for sick ground zero workers, lawmakers said Wednesday.
The federal official charged with overseeing the government's Sept. 11 health
programs will examine the autopsy report and plans to meet again with the
lawmakers to discuss the matter, a spokesman said.
A coroner's report released Tuesday found James Zadroga's death after
developing respiratory disease was "directly related" to the 2001 attack on the
World Trade Center. Zadroga, of Little Egg Harbor, N.J., died Jan. 5.
Researchers say it will take decades to determine which illnesses and deaths
among ground zero workers were caused by their exposure to the asbestos-laden
dust cloud.
Reps. Carolyn Maloney, D-Manhattan, Vito Fossella, R-Staten Island, and
Christopher Shays, R-Conn., say the report should prompt more action from the
federal government in screening and treating sick ground zero workers.
The government now funds screening and treatment programs, but lawmakers,
including Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., have for years complained the programs
do not get enough federal support to reach and treat all the people affected by
the attacks and their aftermath.
"It is truly sad," Maloney said in a statement, "that four and a half years
after 9/11 the federal government still does not have a comprehensive plan to
treat those who are suffering."
Zadroga's family and union released his autopsy results, the first known
medical ruling positively linking a death to recovery work at ground zero.
"It is felt with a reasonable degree of medical certainty that the cause of
death in this case was directly related to the 9/11 incident," wrote Gerard
Breton, a pathologist at the Ocean County (N.J.) medical examiner's office in
the Feb. 28 autopsy.
A class action lawsuit and families of ground zero workers have alleged that
more than two dozen deaths are related to exposure to trade center dust, which
doctors believe contained a number of toxic chemicals including asbestos and
more than 1 million tons of debris from the twin towers.
Zadroga died of respiratory failure and had inflammation in his lung tissue
due to "a history of exposure to toxic fumes and dust," Breton wrote.
The New York Police Department detective spent 470 hours after the attacks
sifting through the twin towers' smoldering ruins, wearing a paper mask for
protection. His breathing became labored within weeks, he developed a cough and
he had to use an oxygen tank to breathe. He retired on disability in November
2004.
The coroner found material "consistent with dust" in Zadroga's lungs and
damage to his liver and said his heart and spleen were enlarged.
Federal health officials will examine the autopsy findings, according to a
spokesman for Dr. John Howard, the director of the National Institute for
Occupational Safety and Health. Howard is charged with overseeing the
government's Sept. 11 health programs.
"We haven't seen the (autopsy) report ourselves," NIOSH spokesman Fred
Blosser said. "Dr. Howard has said that he will look for and wants to read any
report, documentation, information that would provide more details on the
illnesses that are being reported by responders and also these reports of deaths
among some 20 responders."