Asthma Rates 1200% Of Normal Among Ground Zero Workers - AP

[hatrack]

WASHINGTON - A new survey of Sept. 11-related illnesses has found an alarming increase in asthma — 12 times higher than normal — among those who toiled on the toxic debris piles of ground zero. The data show 3.6 percent of the 25,000 rescue and recovery workers in the registry reported developing asthma after working at the site — more than 12 times the expected figure for adults over a similar time period.

Firefighters, police officers, construction workers and volunteers swarmed to the site immediately after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks. While most of them were from New York, hundreds or more came from across the country to help in the moment of national crisis.

Workers who reported wearing protective respirators on Sept. 11 and 12, when the contamination was at its worst, had lower risk of developing adult-onset asthma, the study found.

The results buttress previous research that found 70 percent of those who worked at ground zero later suffered lung problems. The doctors who conducted that study said they expect thousands to need treatment for 9/11 illnesses, and New York politicians, including Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, have pushed for a $1.9 billion program to treat those workers.

EDIT

http://www.onelocalnews.com/duntonsprings/stories/index.php?action=fullnews&id=157303

[GliderGuider]

1. Maybe they can all get treatment in Cuba

I foresee a wave of claim denials coming from the Medical Insurance industry, similar to the 9/11 responders documented in Moore's Sicko!.

[valerief]

2. Or maybe Venezuela. nt