Tens of thousands of deaths the fault of US, Aftermath of 9/11 Options

[dauss]

Congress Criticizes Federal Response to Illnesses After 9/11 and Seeks More Spending

After listening to recovery workers at ground zero and downtown residents emotionally describe how they had been ignored and insulted as they sought help for health problems after 9/11, members of a Congressional subcommittee roundly criticized the federal response yesterday and called for sharply increased medical spending.

Subcommittee members, joined by Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Charles E. Schumer, accused the Bush administration of ignoring the health problems that arose among workers who toiled at ground zero and the claims of downtown residents who say they were also sickened by the dust. The administration has done little to prepare for a similar disaster in the future, they said.

“Today it appears the public health approach to lingering environmental hazards remains unfocused and halting,” said Representative Christopher Shays, a Republican from Connecticut, and chairman of the House Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations, which held the hearing in Lower Manhattan, a block from ground zero. “The unquestionable need for long-term monitoring has been met with only short term commitments.”

The subcommittee hearing, the fourth to be held since the Sept. 11 attack, came amidst rising concern about the long-term health effects on about 40,000 workers and volunteers who were exposed to toxic smoke and dust on the debris pile. The subcommittee is examining the way the limited federal funding has been used to address the health problems and is to look for ways to better coordinate those efforts.

Representative Vito Fossella, a Republican from Staten Island, criticized the government for not having done even basic work to record how many people participated in the cleanup and recovery operations.

Senator Schumer said the $55 million in federal funds set aside for medical treatment of rescue and recovery workers was inadequate. “We need a federal commitment that everyone who needs help will get it,” Senator Schumer said.

Steven M. Centore, of Flanders, N.Y., was a team leader at ground zero for the Department of Energy’s radiological assistance program. He said that he is now suffering from respiratory, circulatory and gastrointestinal problems. .

Mr. Centore, 49, said he struggled with the federal workers’ compensation system and had received no financial help from the system. “I feel like it’s a contest to see if they’re going to give in first or I’m going to die first,” he said.

The federal government, and especially the Environmental Protection Agency and its former administrator, Christine Todd Whitman, were accused by Representatives Jerrold Nadler, a Democrat whose district includes Lower Manhattan, and Anthony D. Weiner, a Democrat from Brooklyn, of having falsely stated in the first days after the attack that the air downtown was safe to breathe. At an appearance yesterday in Harlem, Senator Clinton said that she felt that Mrs. Whitman and her agency “deliberately misled people” into thinking that it was safe to return to Lower Manhattan.

A report by the Inspector General’s office in 2003 found that the E.P.A. went beyond what it knew in making general statements about the safety of the air downtown after the attack. It also found that the White House had at least indirectly influenced the wording of some statements by removing cautionary language. Mrs. Whitman strongly defended herself shortly after the release of that report, saying that her statements reflected what was known at the time and applied to areas outside ground zero.

Lea Geronimo, a resident of the Lower East Side, said it was the assurance from the E.P.A. that led her to return to her home and office three blocks from ground zero a week after the towers collapsed. She said she developed bronchitis and severe rashes a few months later.

“Our lives will never be the same, and we will not tolerate half-measures and the whisper of a promise,” she testified. “We need a comprehensive long-term treatment and study program to provide immediate care for residents and workers in Lower Manhattan.”

The health of downtown residents has not been as well studied as that of ground zero workers, but limited medical surveys have indicated that many residents developed respiratory problems after 9/11, though the extent to which those problems have persisted is not known.

More than 100 residents gathered Thursday night at St. Paul’s Chapel to demand screening and treatment.

Mr. Nadler, who attended the Thursday meeting and yesterday’s hearing, said he had introduced a bill that would make rescue and recovery workers, downtown residents and schoolchildren who are sick eligible for treatment under Medicare.

Representative Carolyn B. Maloney, Democrat of Manhattan and Queens, introduced a bill that would reopen the Sept. 11 Victim Compensation Fund to make assistance available to those who are ill.

And Senator Clinton said at the hearing yesterday that she would push for an additional federal appropriation to cover the rising costs of medical treatment. “We cannot rest until we put into place a system to care for every single person who was affected by 9/11,” she said.

Dr. John Howard, the federal 9/11 health care coordinator, told the committee that the $75 million appropriated for screening and treatment will be available next month and should be considered “a down payment,” that will be supplemented as officials prepare estimates of the number of people who need help, the cost of caring for them and the types of programs they will need.

On Thursday, Dr. John O. Agwunobi, the assistant secretary for health of the Department of Health and Human Services, was named by Michael O. Leavitt, the department secretary, to lead a policy task force to develop programs for dealing with the 9/11 health issues.

Dr. Howard said he would continue in his current position as coordinator with groups in New York while also helping to shape new policies.

When the towers were demolished, it threw up thousands of pounds of concrete, glass, abestos, and other toxic dust into the air. A lot of them were innocent people just trying to help out. Sure they offered masks and respirators, but the government said the air was safe. Also they never waited before they started hauling away the remaining debris, so they could get rid of the evidence of a massive government coverup. Sure the initial death toll might have been caused by terrorists, but the actual final number caused by the US will could be over 10 fold. The amount of lives lost in Iraq has already surpassed the lives lost on 9/11.

[dauss]

hey another "bush sucks" thread made by dauss

let me count here:
# of times the word bush appeared in my writing: 0
And you can't count the 1 mention in the article, because I didn't write it.