Citizen G'kar: Musings on Earth

June 13, 2006

The Death Toll for 9/11 Continues Upward

The death toll for 9/11 continues to rise. The environmental hazards of the disaster appear to be causing cancers in workers millions of times more frequently than chance. Emergency responders daily face a high risk of hazards. Lets hope that there is some help for the families of the responders to 9/11.
New York Post
World Trade Center rescue and recovery workers have been diagnosed with cancer, and 33 of them have died of cancer, says a lawyer for the ailing responders.


David Worby, a lawyer for 8,000 World Trade Center responders, including cops, firefighters and construction workers, said the cases include blood-cell cancers such as leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin's and myeloma.


Doctors say the cancers can strike three to five years after exposure to toxins such as benzene, a cancer-causing chemical that permeated the WTC site from burning jet fuel.


"One in 150,000 white males under 40 would normally get the type of acute white blood-cell cancer that strikes a healthy detective," said Worby, whose first client was NYPD narcotics cop John Walcott, now 41. Walcott spent months at Ground Zero and the Fresh Kills landfill. The father of three is fighting leukemia.


"We have nearly 35 of these cancers in the family of 50,000 Ground Zero workers. The odds of that occurring are one in hundreds of millions," Worby said.


Others suffer tumors of the tongue, throat, testicles, breast, bladder, kidney, colon, intestines, and lung....

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