House: 9/11 Rescue Workers Deserve Health Care

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2007/09/18/house-911-rescue-workers-deserve-health-care/

by Mike Hall, Sep 18, 2007

The Bush administration has been dragging its feet on monitoring and treating the health problems of the more than 40,000 World Trade Center first responders and recovery workers who worked on the massive and toxic rubble pile following the Sept. 11 attacks of Ground Zero, says Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.).




For too long, the health concerns of first responders have been ignored here in Washington. Unfortunately, for the past six years, the administration has been dragging its feet. This is the first year the Bush administration has asked for money for health care.

Pallone’s remarks came as the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Health Subcommittee examined the lingering health effects of Sept. 11 and the need for a larger federal role in tracking and treating World Trade Center-related illnesses.

The hearing came the day after a bipartisan group of House lawmakers introduced legislation to ensure that everyone exposed to the toxins at Ground Zero has a right to be medically monitored and anyone who is sick, as a result, has a right to treatment.

Robin Herbert, director of the World Trade Center monitoring and treatment program based at Mount Sinai Medical Center, told the panel that about four in 10 of its patients have experienced breathing problems, including asthma, and many suffer mental health problems such as post-traumatic stress disorder. She also warned:

here will be new health problems emerging in future years because of the uniquely compounded mix of toxins that workers were exposed to.

FULL story at link.