Debate over 9/11-Related Illnesses Continues

“My wife got killed on Sept. 11 and she didn’t die until march 15, 2006,” said David Reeve, husband of a 41-year-old woman who died of mesothelioma after being exposed to large amounts of toxic dust containing asbestos and other hazardous materials at Ground Zero. “She got killed and didn’t know it.”

Doctors have finally established a firm link between chronic respiratory illnesses and work on ground zero, said a study published by the biggest 9/11 worker monitoring program.

That program has found that nearly 70 percent of ground zero workers are likely to have chronic lifelong breathing problems.

Some experts are saying that labeling the link definite may be premature. They say it can be easy to misunderstand the causes of some of these illnesses.

An unofficial death count of ground zero workers is rapidly rising. A lawyer who is suing the city and contractors supervising the cleanup of Ground Zero has counted up to 90 deaths.

Many who worked on the site died of illnesses that the rest of the workers are now familiar with, such as mesothelioma, sarcoidosis, and pulmonary disease.

More Study

The city health department plans to study where the death rate among the 71,000 people who worked at ground zero and registered with them is above normal. The Health Department has not disclosed any deaths or causes of death from the registry so far.

David Reave said it might take decades to prove for sure what is already obvious to him. His wife’s doctor, Reynoldo Alonso, wrote a letter before his wife died saying that her only exposure to asbestos and other carcinogens occurred when she worked at Ground Zero.

“It is reasonable to state that her exposure at ground zero was the cause of her cancer,” wrote Alonso.

“Why do you have such a disproportionate number of people developing cancer at an earlier age?” Alonso asked. “The only thing these people have in common is that they were in southern Manhattan on September 11, 2001. Now argue that.”

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