September 11, 2001 — We Were There. We Remember.

[Omaha Steve]

http://afscmeblog.org/?p=48

September 11, 2001 — We Were There. We Remember.

When planes roared through the sky on Sept. 11, 2001, millions of Americans watched on TV in horror. We were transfixed, unable to comprehend what we were watching. Many of us were paralyzed by fear, sadness and confusion.

That paralysis was not felt by the public employees in New York and at the Pentagon. The firefighters, EMT’s, paramedics, 911 operators, transit workers, nurses, hospital and health care workers, ambulance drivers, city engineers and air traffic controllers sprang into action and responded to the call of duty.

Three AFSCME members gave their lives that day in the rescue effort. Five more AFSCME members were killed in their offices at the State Department of Taxation and Finance at the World Trade Center.

On the fifth anniversary of the attacks, our hearts go out to their families. We know they are missed every day.

A list of those AFSCME members we lost that day:

The Rev. Mychal F. Judge of Local 299 (DC 37), the New York Fire Department chaplain who died at the World Trade Center administering last rites to a mortally wounded firefighter; paramedics Carlos Lillo and Ricardo Quinn, DC 37 members who braved that hellish scene to support rescue efforts; and five members of the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA)/ AFSCME Local 1000 — Yvette Anderson, Florence Cohen, Harry Goody, Marian Hrycak and Dorothy Temple — who worked for the state Department of Taxation and Finance in Tower 1 and were thus caught in the worst of places at the worst of times.

Tragically, the death toll does not end there. The collapse of the World Trade Center buildings created a heavy cloud of caustic dust and airborne toxins that included pulverized cement, glass, asbestos, lead and numerous chemicals. And in the early weeks of the recovery effort, city agencies provided no breathing protection. Many of the responders that day, as well as workers who have been part of the recovery effort at Ground Zero, breathed this noxious smoke. A new health study released this month shows that nearly 70 percent of recovery workers who responded to the attacks on the World Trade Center have suffered lung problems, and high rates of lung “abnormalities” continue. In February, AFSCME member Ron Vega testified before Congress on the effects that he, and others like him who worked at Ground Zero, have suffered as a result of exposure to dangerous toxins.

Many workers have lost their lives since 9-11, as a result of this exposure to toxics. They include AFSCME members such as Paramedic Deborah Reeve. The 17-year veteran and member of DC 37 was one of hundreds AFSCME members who worked at Ground Zero Sept. 11 — rescuing victims and searching for survivors of the terrorist attacks — and in the subsequent recovery effort. By 2003, she began having respiratory problems — difficulty breathing and a persistent cough. Doctors later discovered cancer in her lungs and diagnosed it as mesothelioma, which develops after exposure to asbestos. After waging a two-year battle with the malignancy, Paramedic Reeve passed away on March 15, 2006; she was 41 years old.

Public Employee magazine archives from the Fall of 2001: