OCTOBER

• FIRED-FIRM CEO STILL RUNS SITE'S SCAFFOLDS: TOP EXEC BLAMED FOR DEUTSCHE BANK FIRE ... The top executive of a subcontracting company being blamed for the deadly Deutsche Bank blaze will continue to play a key role in the demolition of the building, although his company was fired from the project. The Lower Manhattan Development Corp., owner of the black-shrouded building at 130 Liberty St., continues to retain the services of Regional Scaffolding & Hoisting on the site - a company run by the same man who heads the John Galt Corp. Officials with the LMDC declined to comment on the relationship between the two companies and refused to provide details on the kind of services Regional Scaffolding will continue to provide nor the value of its contract. Greg Blinn, CEO of the John Galt Corp. and vice president of Regional Scaffolding, said his contract with the LMDC forbids him from speaking to the press. His two companies operate out of the same offices at 3900 Webster Ave. in The Bronx. Last week, the LMDC and the main contractor for the demolition project, Bovis Lend Lease Corp., fired John Galt as the asbestos-removal subcontractor in the wake of the Aug. 18 blaze that killed two firefighters. Five days after the deadly fire, a John Galt employee dropped a 300-pound pallet jack from the 23rd floor of the building injuring two more firefighters. Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday that that fire was most likely started by careless smoking on the 17th floor. Employees of John Galt have said basic safety practices were ignored and, despite specific rules forbidding it, on-site smoking was routine. The John Galt Corp. was also slapped with 12 violations from the Department of Buildings and 20 federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration violations for work at the building near Ground Zero. (NYPost, by Chuck Bennet, August 28, 2007)
• You tell ‘em ... Speaking of Julie Menin, she may not win the Ms. Congeniality contest at the next Lower Manhattan Development Corporation board meeting. Menin told fellow Community Board 1 members last week that she was angry that the L.M.D.C. seemed to be trying to pawn off its community notification responsibilities on the community board. The L.M.D.C. has offered the board a grant to hire a staffer to interface with government agencies and do outreach, Menin said, but in the wake of the fatal Deutsche Bank fire, she thinks the buck should stop at the corporation. “They cannot put that onus on us,” she said. “We cannot be co-opted by them.”(Downtown Express, Oct. 26 - Nov.1, 2007)
  
• Smearing a hero of 9/11 ... There is mounting evidence that the city's chief medical examiner libeled the memory of Detective James Zadroga by ruling that the cop's long, arduous service at Ground Zero had nothing to do with his tragic death. Dr. Charles Hirsch appears to have committed a gross injustice that no apology can ever set right. ... (NYDailyNews, Oct. 26, 2007)
• City Says Prescription Misuse Caused Death of Detective Who Worked at 9/11 Site ... New York City’s medical examiner has concluded that it was the misuse of prescription drugs, and not toxic ground zero dust, that killed James Zadroga, a retired detective, but other experts strongly disagree. Detective Zadroga’s parents revealed the medical examiner’s opinion yesterday, several days after he had sent a letter to them stating “with certainty beyond doubt” that their son had not died as a result of inhaling dust during the more than 400 hours he worked at ground zero. After reviewing medical evidence, Charles S. Hirsch, the city’s chief medical examiner, concluded that Detective Zadroga had crushed pills and made them into a solution that was injected intravenously into his bloodstream. Traces of nonsoluble fillers, or binders, in the pills accumulated in his lungs, leading to respiratory illness that caused his death in January 2006, at the age of 34, according to the medical examiner’s office. Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner’s office, said the material in Detective Zadroga’s lungs had passed through his bloodstream. “Our findings were that his lung disease was not caused by anything he inhaled,” she said. “The crystals we saw under the microscope could only have been caused by foreign body granulomas in the blood vessels.” Medical experts have been aware for more than two decades that drug abusers who crush tablets — including the painkiller OxyContin — and inject them directly into their veins can develop serious respiratory problems. Powdery materials used to bind tablets, including talc and cellulose, can lodge in the lung capillaries. The body reacts by forming nodules called granulomas, which can eventually reduce lung capacity. ... In addition, Dr. Baden said that when he examined slides he found large glass fibers and other particles that could not have come from pills. He also said that injecting ground-up pills causes scarring at the injection site, but that no scars were found on Detective Zadroga’s body. ... (NYTimes, by Anthony DePalma, Oct. 26, 2007)
  
• CHEST: Steroids Prevented Lung Damage After 9/11 ... The differences were both "clinically and statistically significant," Dr. Prezant said at CHEST 2007, the annual meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians. But he cautioned that the study is "preliminary and hypothesis-generating" because many of the approximately 2,700 firefighters who originally signed up for the study dropped out almost immediately. Reasons for dropping out included fear of steroid side effects and lack of immediate benefit, Dr. Prezant said. "We had hoped we would be following these 2,700 firefighters," Dr. Prezant said, but most only took the medication for a few days. Only 158 were treated for the full four weeks that was suggested, he added. ... (Medpage, Oct. 25, 2007)
  
• Family of Ground Zero cop seeking 3rd opinion on death ... The family of an NYPD detective who died after being exposed to deadly toxins at Ground Zero is seeking a third medical opinion on the cause of his death, sources close to the family said Wednesday. ... (NYDaily News, by Melissa Grace, Oct. 25, 2007)
  
• Inhalers’ Use Found to Help 9/11 Workers ... New York City firefighters who used steroid inhalers while they worked at ground zero during the early days of the rescue and recovery operations in 2001 suffered less severe respiratory problems than others, even though they were not wearing protective gear, according to a new study released yesterday. Aerosol inhalers, or puffers, are commonly prescribed for people with asthma. The study, which was presented at the annual meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians in Chicago, suggests that they may also help prevent respiratory illness in emergency workers exposed to hazardous conditions. ... (NYTimes, by Anthony DePalma, Oct. 25, 2007)
• Senate votes to extend 9/11 health aid ... The Senate has approved a $55 million fund to help care for people exposed to toxins from the Sept. 11 attacks. The funding would extend monitoring and treatment from first responders and emergency personnel to residents, workers and others who breathed the contaminated air in lower Manhattan. "Passage of this bill by the Senate is great news for those who still suffer from the lingering effects of the 9/11 attacks," Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday. The bill, approved Tuesday night, comes as an addition to the $50 million already allocated in the 2008 fiscal year. The measure encourages the development of long-term solutions to screen and treat everyone affected by the post-9/11 risks. Health problems suffered by the thousands who were affected range from asthma to posttraumatic stress. "The message of this vote is clear," said Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). "America is here for you in your time of need." The bill will now go to the House. (NYDailyNews, by Oren Yaniv, Oct. 25, 2007)
• US Senate approves $55 million to expand health coverage for 9/11 emergency responders ... Washington – The full Senate has approved an additional $55 million in federal funding to address the mounting health needs of those individuals who were exposed to the environmental hazards released as a result of the September 11, 2001 attacks upon the World Trade Center. The funding, which comes in addition to the $50 million that was provided in the recent Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Bill, was included in the Fiscal Year 2008 Labor, Health and Human Services Appropriations Bill by the Senate Labor, HHS, Education and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee. The bill will now proceed to the conference with the House as the next step in the appropriations process. Specifically, the $55 million will go towards screening, monitoring and treatment activities administered by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to help those individuals who were exposed to the environmental hazards released on and after 9/11. The bill also includes language requiring the Department of Health and Human Services, through NIOSH, to expand the program beyond responders and rescue workers to entities that would provide services to residents, office and commercial workers, students, and other individuals who were exposed. Existing programs to serve those who were impacted include the centers in the Mt Sinai Consortium and the program run by the New York City Fire Department. Finally, the bill, which was given full Senate approval, encourages the development of a long-term, comprehensive solution to screen and monitor all individuals who were exposed to environmental hazards from the World Trade Center collapse and encourages the provision of long-term comprehensive medical services for those experiencing illnesses or injuries as a result of these exposures. (Empire State News, Oct. 25, 2007)
  
• ME Claims 9/11 Cop Died From Drug Misuse ... In a private meeting, Hirsch later told the family he believed Zadroga died of drug misuse - most likely by grinding up his medication and injecting it intravenously. There was no claim of any illegal drug abuse. Zadroga was taking 14 medications, including two intravenously, at the time of his death, but all were administered by family, according to his father. Later Thursday, Hirsch's office confirmed Zadroga got the lung disease that killed him by injecting ground-up pills, the coroner's spokeswoman confirmed. Hirsch apparently cited the talc and cellulose present in Zadroga's lungs as evidence of such misuse. But Baden, who reviewed Zadroga's tissue slides, autopsy report and medical records, dismissed this claim. "Talc and cellulose are ubiquitous," he said, noting such materials could have come from furniture at the World Trade Center. He also said there was no evidence of the scarring that would have accompanied repeated injections. ... Baden said the lack of scars or needle tracks - and Zadroga's clean bill of health prior to Sept. 11 2001 - further undermine Hirsch's ruling. But Hirsch maintains that the foreign matter in the cop's lungs "entered his body via the bloodstream and not via the airways,'' his spokeswoman told the AP. "I suspect that there may not be a 100 percent definitive answer here," said Dr. Stephen D. Cohle, chief medical examiner of Kent County (Grand Rapids) Michigan. Cohle, who knows both Dr. Hirsch and Dr. Baden but is not involved in this case, said that foreign materials that are mixed with injected drugs display a very specific appearance - and likely wouldn't be mistaken by someone as experienced as Hirsch. However, Cohle noted that it's unusual for chronic IV abuse to cause fatal lung disease. Cohle also said Zadroga's heart condition can offer clues. According to the autopsy report, the right side of Zadroga's heart had swelled to twice its normal size - a condition known as right ventricular enlargement. "Right ventricular enlargement is much more common with exposure to dusts and other occupational exposure," Cohle said. Earlier this year, Hirsch ruled that an attorney who died of a lung disease after being caught in the World Trade Center collapse could be added to the victims list - the first time a person who died from a 9/11-linked illness was included in the official tally. (CBS, Oct. 25, 2007)
• Debris Removal Underway at 130 Liberty ... Preparations are now underway to remove debris and waste from 130 Liberty Street. In coming days, vehicular activity around the site will increase as trucks begin to transport the material to approved landfills. All materials have been carefully sealed in boxes for transport. Environmental regulators will oversee the operation, which is expected to take place over the next two weeks. (LowerManhattan.info, Oct. 24, 2007)
• Inhaled steroids protected 9/11 firefighters: study ... As New York City firefighters struggled to find survivors in the haze and rubble of the World Trade Center collapse, the fire department's chief doctor was thinking about how to keep them safe from toxins in the air. Dr. David Prezant devised a plan to offer inhaled corticosteroids -- the kind used to prevent asthma attacks -- to the city's firefighters in the hopes they might prevent lung damage. The effort appears to have paid off, said Prezant, a lung specialist who presented his findings on Wednesday to a meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians in Chicago. Prezant knew the best defense against respiratory disease would be to use respirators, but he also knew exposure was inevitable, and many rescue workers had already breathed in potentially toxic particles. "These people were going to rescue their buddies and recover their buddies no matter what. It was our plan to mitigate their exposure," Prezant told Reuters. The strategy was unproven. No studies had shown inhaled steroids could protect against long-term lung damage. Prezant, who had been trapped at the World Trade Center himself and was taking inhaled steroids to protect his own lungs, decided to offer the same treatment to firefighters. "We thought about this on day two," said Prezant, co-director of the World Trade Center Medical Monitoring and Treatment Programs. He asked a friend at Montefiore Medical Center to contact a sales representative for AstraZeneca, maker of the inhaler known as Pulmicort or budesonide. "I knew there would never be any side-effects. That is why I knew it was worth doing even if there was no evidence it would help," he said. Within days of the September 11 attack, AstraZeneca had trucks loaded with 10,000 donated inhalers headed for the city. FEARS OF SIDE-EFFECTS: Prezant had to satisfy the company's lawyer that the medication, which is not labeled for preventive use, would be given by medical personnel and that firefighters would be fully informed -- which he did. Some 2,700 out of 10,000 firefighters initially agreed to participate, but only 158 actually completed treatment. Many feared the effects of steroid use or saw no immediate benefit. Just 64 participated in the follow-up. But two years after the attack, those who did complete treatment had significant reductions in respiratory symptoms and better quality of life compared with untreated firefighters, according to Prezant's study. Treated firefighters, who started out with more symptoms than those with similar exposure who got no treatment, had about 10 times greater improvement in lung function compared with the untreated group. The results are enough to suggest this approach might be worth another try, he said. ... (Reuters, by Julie Steenhuysen, Oct. 24, 2007)
  
• AP Analysis: Could debate about officer's death hurt 9/11 bill? ... They say that a key determining factor will be whether the materials were found in Zadroga's blood vessels or the upper airways. Material found in vessels often come from injections, while substances in the airways are usually inhaled, experts say. "If you're looking for the source and how a particular substance got in the body, you look at the type of particles, the size of the particles, how the body reacted to those particles, and where those particles were found in the lungs," said Michael Graham, the chief medical examiner in St. Louis. .... (NYNewsday, Oct. 24, 2007)
  
• 9/11 Advocates Rip ME Finding On Cop's Death; Question Basis For Ruling It's Not WTC-Related ... Advocates for 9/11 first-responders Oct. 19 blasted the Chief Medical Examiner's determination that the death of an NYPD Detective who toiled at Ground Zero was not related to his 9/11 recovery work.... (Chief-Leader, by AAri Pual, Oct. 26, 2007)
  
• Pension Ruling Reversed: 2 Firemen Granted WTC Disability Pay ...The Fire Department Pension Fund Medical Board has reversed a decision denying disability pensions to two firefighters who retired due to 9/11-related illnesses. The FDNY Medical Committee ruled in 2003 that two firefighters, Lawrence J. Marley and Gerard Ledwith, had suffered from clinical asthma with airway hyperactivity, but overruled those findings two years later, claiming that their illnesses did not prevent them from performing their duties. But Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Jack M. Battaglia remanded the case this spring, noting that the Medical Board finding contradicted the conclusion of the Medical Committee. (Chief-Leader, by AAri Pual, Oct. 26, 2007)
  
• 9/11 Worker's Kin Rejects Death Ruling ... Hirsch agreed with a New Jersey medical examiner's finding that there was foreign matter in Zadroga's lungs. The New Jersey medical examiner had said the granular material in his lungs was consistent with dust, but Hirsch emphatically ruled out environmental exposure as the cause. Experts say that one alternate medical theory for foreign granular matter in the lungs is a history of intravenous drug injections. In 1981, Hirsch co-wrote a key medical paper on the subject. Zadroga was taking intravenous painkillers and had taken steroids, all prescribed by doctors for his respiratory problems, before his death, Barasch said Friday. He never took drugs that were not prescribed for him, he added. "If the drugs contributed to his death, it makes no difference as far as what our perspective is. He was taking all the medication for all the toxins he inhaled," Barasch said. "This was a squeaky clean New York City detective who was in tip-top shape." ... Gerard Breton, the New Jersey pathologist who performed Zadroga's autopsy, said that Zadroga had inflamed lung tissue, an enlarged heart and material that appeared to be dust in his lungs. ... (AP, by Amy Westfeldt, Oct. 21, 2007)
  
• PA HOLDING TIGHT TO $650M IN 9/11 WAR .. . The Port Authority is sitting on $650 million in liability insurance that can help settle the claims of sick World Trade Center recovery workers, The Post has learned. The agency's coverage, which officials confirmed last week, would be added to the city's $1 billion insurance fund available to compensate firefighters, cops, construction workers and others who prove they have toxic injuries from Ground Zero. Mayor Bloomberg said last week he's willing to begin settlement talks to end the city's legal war with the 9/11 responders. The Port Authority's release of the insurance money could speed a settlement. "That would go a long way toward helping to resolve this litigation," said Marc Bern, a lawyer for 9,000 city employees and other WTC workers. Lawyers for sick workers blame the city and the Port Authority, which owned the WTC, for alleged safety violations during the cleanup. Labor laws say a landlord must provide a safe place to work. The agency declined to comment, but has argued in court that it did not control the cleanup, which was run by the city's Department of Design and Construction. After 9/11, Congress passed a law capping the Port Authority's liability for damages stemming from the terror attacks at $650 million, its maximum insurance coverage. ... The law capped the city's liability at $350 million, a sum the lawyers contend would also add to the pot. .... (NYPost, by Susan Edelman, Oct. 21, 2007)
  
• Editorial: Hirsch must explain ... Medical Examiner Dr. Charles Hirsch has rendered a stunning opinion - an opinion that demands detailed explanation - that Detective James Zadroga's death had nothing to do with his service at Ground Zero. Hirsch delivered his finding to Zadroga's family this week in a terse letter whose clinical nature was unnecessarily brutal. He met with the distraught parents yesterday, and all agreed not to discuss it in public. The ME and collaborator Dr. Michele Slone could not have been more emphatic in concluding that Zadroga's lungs were destroyed not by toxins he inhaled working on The Pile, but by another cause: "It is our unequivocal opinion, with certainty beyond doubt, that the foreign material in your son's lungs did not get there as the result of inhaling dust at the World Trade Center or elsewhere." The Zadrogas' lawyer said only that the family rejects Hirsch's opinion as unfounded. So the question becomes: Is he backed by science or by quackery? Full documentation must be opened to inspection so experts can judge the ME's credibility. The historical record deserves nothing less. Zadroga has been the embodiment of the severe respiratory illnesses suffered by rescue and recovery workers who labored at the World Trade Center site. A healthy nonsmoker in his early 30s, he worked for more than 450 hours on The Pile, developing a persistent cough within just a few weeks. Over the next few months, he became short of breath, coughed incessantly and was unable to walk more than 100 feet without gasping. ... "It is with a reasonable degree of medical certainty," wrote the pathologist, Dr. Gerard Breton, "that the cause of death in this case was directly related to the 9/11 incident." An analysis of material in Zadroga's lungs by the Defense Department's Armed Forces Institute of Pathology found talc, cellulose (wood), plastic, carbon, silica and calcium phosphate, which is found in concrete - substances that without question were in the air at Ground Zero. No matter. Hirsch says something else is at work. What that might be will be a matter of unseemly speculation until he explains himself. The Associated Press reported that in 1981 Hirsch wrote a paper linking intravenous drug injections to lung damage. Is that the ME's theory of what killed a hero cop who has no known history of drug abuse? Or might he think prescription medications did Zadroga in? Out with it, Dr. Hirsch. (NYDaily News, Oct, 20, 2007)
  
• Family in 9/11 Dust Case Visits Medical Examiner ... The family of a New York City police detective who died years after working at ground zero met for several hours yesterday with New York City medical examiners who had concluded that the detective’s death could not be linked to the toxic dust there. Dr. Charles S. Hirsch, the chief medical examiner, sent a letter on Tuesday to Detective James Zadroga’s father, Joseph Zadroga of Little Egg Harbor, N.J., stating “with certainty beyond doubt” that the material found in Detective Zadroga’s lungs “did not get there as the result of inhaling dust at the World Trade Center or elsewhere.” After the meeting, Mr. Zadroga slipped out a side door and drove off without saying anything. The family’s lawyer, Michael Barasch, refused to give any details about the meeting or why the medical examiner had contradicted a New Jersey pathologist who concluded last year that Detective Zadroga’s death was caused by respiratory failure “directly related” to ground zero dust. “Two rational men can disagree,” Mr. Barasch said. “So the family will leave it to the court of public opinion and let the public decide what makes the most sense here.” Ellen Borakove, spokeswoman for the medical examiner’s office, said that Detective Zadroga’s family had asked Dr. Hirsch a few months ago to examine the autopsy report because they wanted Detective Zadroga’s name to be added to the official list of victims of the attack. “Dr. Hirsch gave his personal assurance to the family that he would keep the details of the meeting private and confidential,” Ms. Borakove said. Ms. Borakove said the medical examiner had also done re-examinations for three or four other families of people whose deaths were suspected to be linked to ground zero work, and had rejected such a conclusion for all of them. She said that one other review, still pending, was for Cesar A. Borja, a police officer who died in January of pulmonary fibrosis. His family claimed he had become ill after rushing to ground zero and spending many hours there. But records indicated his exposure to the dust was far more limited. Dr. Gerard Breton, the New Jersey pathologist who conducted the autopsy on Detective Zadroga, said in an interview yesterday that he was not changing his opinion that the detective’s death was linked to his exposure to ground zero dust. Dr. Breton said that after completing the autopsy last year, he did not have access to the sophisticated equipment needed to analyze the tissue samples and sent them to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. Dr. Breton said that the institute identified the foreign material from Detective Zadroga’s lungs, and that he concluded the material was consistent with ground zero dust. (NYTimes, by Anthony DePalma, Oct. 20, 2007)
  
• Editorial: 9/11 should be campaign material .... The Sept. 11 attack was the most significant single event in over half a century and the candidates’ views or record in regard to 9/11 should be central to any national campaign. Giuliani and Clinton played key roles after the attack and any unwritten rule discouraging them from using images to highlight their record is absurd. Clinton’s ad has subdued pictures of her meeting with ground zero workers at the site and points out correctly that she has led the fight for health care for workers suffering from ailments due to their work at the World Trade Center. Clinton has been a strong advocate for Lower Manhattan residents who very well may be suffering health problems as well. Giuliani, as we have said before, has a mixed record on 9/11 issues — he ignored residential concerns as mayor and did not pay enough attention to the environmental questions — but he certainly should point to the leadership he showed guiding the city through one of its most difficult periods. We would like to see all of the candidates talking about where they stand now because of what happened in 2001. (Downtown Express, October 19 - 25, 2007)
  
• Sue City For Job-Related Injury Data ... The New York Committee of Occupational Safety and Health is suing the Bloomberg administration for an alleged failure to comply with a Freedom of Information Law request concerning public employee work-related injury and illness data. "A law passed by the City Council two years ago requires all of the agencies to forward information to the Mayor's Office [which] must use part of the information for a public report," said Larry Cary, a NYCOSH attorney, in an e-mail. "NYCOSH sought release of the information not included in the report to better understand what is happening and be able to advocate for risk reduction programs." Couldn't Get Data: On May 7, NYCOSH Executive Director Joel Shufro sent Mayor Bloomberg a FOIL request for all such data sent to his office in the last year. The Mayor's Office responded with a CD that did not have the information Mr. Shufro had requested, Mr. Cary said. The NYCOSH head appealed, but it was denied on June 5 because, as the complaint stated, the "Mayor's Office did not have the records it was required to." NYCOSH filed another FOIL request on June 14, which was denied. In response to NYCOSH's second appeal, Assistant Corporation Counsel Jeffrey Friedlander formally responded July 31, "this office does not receive or maintain a record that contains all the information listed in the provision of law. FOIL does not require that a government agency, in responding to a request, create a record that does not already exist." According to Mr. Cary, city workers filed 14,000 claims last year. The purpose of forcing the city to retain information on worker injuries is so that it can mitigate injury rates in the future. "Our suspicion is that if they don't have the material, they are not abiding by the law," he said. (Chief-Leader, by Ari Pual, Oct. 19, 2007)
  
• Fiterman leader says we’ve learned from Deutsche ... “I’d like to say that on behalf of all of us involved in the Fiterman Hall project, we were deeply affected by the events in August at Deutsche Bank,” said Iris Weinshall, vice chancellor of planning and construction for the City University of New York, at an Oct. 2 public meeting on the Fiterman project. “The Fiterman Hall project team has taken these events very seriously and has used the information gleaned from the Deutsche Bank building experience as an opportunity to inform our own process.”  ... Once the Fiterman plan is approved, it is expected to take about a year to decontaminate and take down the building.... (Downtown Express, October 19 - 25, 2007)
  
• KIN FIGHT ON IN 9/11 TOXIC WAR ... The parents of fallen NYPD Detective James Zadroga emerged from a meeting with the city's medical examiner yesterday in disagreement with his ruling that their son's death did not stem from his work at Ground Zero, their lawyer said. "We do not agree with the doctor, but there are two medical examiners who have different opinions," said attorney Michael Barasch. The meeting came after Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Charles Hirsch sent the family a letter stating that he did not believe that Zadroga's death from sarcoidosis was "directly related" to his 470 hours of work cleaning up the smoldering pile. The ruling flew in the face of one last year by a New Jersey pathologist. (NYPost, by Matthew Nestel, Oct. 20, 2007)
  
• Editorial: GAMING GROUND ZERO.... Neither Dr. Charles Hirsch, the city's chief medical examiner, nor the fam ily of James Zadroga was talking publicly yesterday about why the M.E. is convinced "beyond certainty of doubt" that the retired NYPD detective's death last year was not related to his post-9/11 rescue work at Ground Zero. But Hirsch's unambigious findings - made at the request of Zadroga's family, it should be noted - only underscore why the city can't automatically presume that any and all illnesses of ex-Ground Zero workers are 9/11-related, no questions asked. Zadroga, recall, was the first rescue worker whose death was officially linked to dust he'd inhaled at Ground Zero. A retired pathologist who'd worked for the Ocean County (N.J.) medical examiner conducted an autopsy and determined "with a reasonable degree of medical certainty" that Zadroa's respiratory failure was "directly related to the 9/11 incident." This assertion unleashed an emotional flood that led federal and city officials to commit to billions in medical care for those claiming 9/11-related illnesses. ... Zadroga's union charged that Hirsch's report was meant to lessen the city's liability in lawsuits. But Zadroga's family has not sued - and the M.E. has certified one case, that of bystander Felicia Dunn-Jones, to have been 9/11-related. But - like the earlier case of Officer Cesar Borja, whose death was blamed in bogus news stories on 9/11 dust he'd inhaled, until it was discovered that he'd only worked near Ground Zero, and then not until well after the plume had cleared - it reinforces the need to scrutinize each and every such claim individually. Neither the city nor the feds can presume that all Ground Zero workers are entitled to benefits and fully subsidized health care whenever any illness develops - on the unproven assumption that it must be 9/11-related. Those who were physically injured on 9/11 and its aftermath - especially the first-responders - deserve all the help that America can offer. But those who hope to game the system - even if they sincerely believe, without proof, that their illness is 9/11-related - cannot be allowed to get away with it. (NYPost, Oct. 20, 2007)
  
• WTC DUST DIDN'T KILL HERO: M.E. ... In a shocking conclusion, the city medical examiner yesterday said the death of a 34-year-old police detective from lung disease was not related to his weeks of work at Ground Zero. This despite the fact that an Ocean County, N.J. medical examiner had already ruled that Detective James Zadroga's untimely death from sarcoidosis in January 2006 was "directly related" to his 470 hours of work cleaning up the World Trade Center site. The conclusion of the autopsy conducted in New Jersey marked the first time that Ground Zero clean-up work had officially been linked to a death But in a letter to Zadroga's parents, New York City Chief Medical Examiner Charles Hirsch wrote, "It is our unequivocal opinion, with certainty beyond doubt, that the foreign material in your son's lungs did not get there as the result of inhaling dust at the World Trade Center or elsewhere." Joseph Zadroga said he was stunned at the letter's callousness - but not surprised at the new finding. "We were always leery to send anything to New York because this is exactly what we thought they would say," Zadroga told The Post. "[The city] never really admitted that he died from the World Trade Center. They gave him such a hard time about his illness - they gave his wife such a hard time, she died of the stress." James Zadroga's wife, Ronda, 29, died of a heart ailment in 2004 while in Florida, forcing him to move in with his parents, since he was too sick to take care of his daughter, who is now 5. Joseph Zadroga said, "I am mad, not just for myself, but for this little girl. Almost every day, she asks me, 'Why did my mommy and daddy have to die? Why did my daddy have to go there?' We tell her because he's a hero, but here we have the City of New York saying he didn't die because of that." Earlier this year, at the encouragement of U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney, James Zadroga's parents sent the city tissue samples and records from the New Jersey autopsy in an attempt to get him put on the official list of Sept. 11 victims. The latest finding enraged NYPD detectives' union President Michael Palladino, who pointed out that the city is facing a class-action lawsuit from about 10,000 Ground Zero workers who have similar lung illnesses. "I think this is a mean-spirited attempt to get another bite of the apple, and out from under their obligation, right as these lawsuits are pending," Palladino said. The Zadrogas are set to meet with the medical examiner today for more details. (NYPost, by Hasani Gitten, Oct. 19, 2007)
• Medical examiner rules 9/11 cop did not die from WTC exposure ... Mayor Michael Bloomberg distanced himself from Hirsch's office in a statement Thursday, saying the independent agency made its own decisions. The city is defending itself in a lawsuit filed by thousands of workers who say they were not properly protected from the dust. Bloomberg has also lobbied the federal government for millions of dollars to treat and monitor the ailing workers. The medical examiner's "determination in this case does nothing to change New York City's commitment to make sure that all who were affected by 9/11 get the health care they need," Bloomberg said. Michael Palladino, president of Zadroga's union, suggested the ruling was related to the ongoing lawsuits against the city. "I'm shocked and appalled that the medical examiner's office would send a letter to Mr. Zadroga, and stating that their unequivocal opinion, with certainty, beyond doubt, is that he didn't die from the World Trade Center, when in fact they can't tell me what he died from," he said. "I don't trust it."... (CNN, Oct. 19, 2007)
• Rejecting ’06 Finding, Report Says Detective Didn’t Die From 9/11 Dust ... The father said his family wanted no money from the city, only a recognition he had died of sarcoidosis — a lung-scarring disease — caused by ground zero dust.He added, however, that the city’s finding had not been unexpected. “We knew the city was going to say this,” Mr. Zadroga said. “They’ve been lying since Jimmy got sick. They’ve been lying about all these W.T.C. people getting sick. They would never admit that Jimmy got sick. They treated him like a dog all those years.” Representative Carolyn B. Maloney, of Manhattan and Queens, said in a statement that if Dr. Hirsch was certain that the material in the detective’s lungs was not caused by trade center dust “then it’s incumbent upon the M.E. to tell Mr. Zadroga’s family where he thinks it did come from, and why he thinks that Mr. Zadroga’s W.T.C. exposures did not contribute to his death.” Mayor Bloomberg said the medical examiner’s finding “does nothing to change New York City’s commitment to make sure that all who were affected by 9/11 get the health care they need.” The Associated Press reported on the medical examiner’s letter yesterday. The highly decorated detective, who died in January 2006 at the age of 34, did not smoke and had no history of asthma, and his family has long believed that his 450 grueling hours of work at ground zero had left his lungs fatally scarred with toxic chemicals, fiberglass and pulverized concrete. ... (NYTims, by Robert D. McFadden, Oct. 19, 2007)
• The Stafford Act: Priorities for Reform ... The report examines how the Stafford Act, the key legislation that dictates the federal government’s response to disasters, actually functions following federally declared disaster events and calls for reform around many of the key tenants of the Act. .... (NYU Center for Catastophe Preparedness & Response, Oct. 28, 2007)
• WTC workers: Payout won't solve health care needs ... In 2004, Congress appropriated $1 billion to establish the World Trade Center Captive Insurance Co. for claims arising from debris removal. Not a victims' compensation fund, the insurance company provides the city, agencies and contractors with an insurance policy against lawsuits. However, almost none of the money has been paid out. Glen Klein of Centereach, a former New York Police Department officer who did rescue and recovery work at the World Trade Center site and now suffers from respiratory and stomach problems, said he would welcome any money, but added that it would not take the place of continuing medical treatment. "There's no amount of money that's going to make me say 'I'm happy. I'll take care of myself,'" he said. "We took care of the city and now it needs to take care of us." Anne Marie Baumann of Lindenhurst, whose husband is a former NYPD officer who now has respiratory and heart problems, agreed. "It's great, it's wonderful, but they really need medical attention. It's not going away," she said. John Feal, a first responder and head of FealGood Foundation, which advocates for World Trade Center responders and workers, said he was worried some might be too eager to accept any offer. "A lot of these guys haven't worked in six years," he said. Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-Manhattan) said she has long held that the $1 billion should be made available. But she said a bill she introduced last month to reopen the Victims Compensation Fund should be passed. Eric Bederman, a spokesman for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), called the talks "a sign of moving closer" to giving workers the help they need. (NYNewsday, by Ridgely Ochs & Matthew Chayes, Oct. 17, 2007)
  
• Heroes need better deal ... But, as predicted, the numbers are obscene. The city has $1 billion to pay settlements, money allocated by Congress. It sounds like plenty, but it's not. The lawyers are claiming 40% of the pot - an astonishing $400 million - leaving $600 million to be divided among everyone else. With about 9,000 claimants, the average payout would be some $66,000 per worker, not nearly enough to cover medical bills and lost wages, particularly in the case of deaths. Nothing more starkly proves the point than the large payments issued by the Sept. 11 Victim Compensation Fund, an entity that went out of business before most of the Forgotten Victims of 9/11 realized they were sick. The fund made an average payment of more than $2 million to survivors of people killed in the attack, and an average payment of almost $400,000 to the injured or sick. Lawyers representing responders and city attorneys have been locked in pretrial skirmishing, the city attempting to establish immunity from damages for injuries suffered in an emergency. But the courts have shown little patience for that claim, signaling that it behooves everyone to pay out the $1 billion before, as one judge put it, more people are dead. So the lawyers have begun circling a settlement. This would require approval from most of the 9,000 people in the suits. They may think settling makes more sense than years of litigation whose only certainty is higher legal fees. That's purely their decision. But it still stinks. After 9/11, the city estimated damage claims could run to $2 billion. But no one put up that much cash; the city's own liability was capped by Congress, and even the responders' lawyers now seem to believe that pursuing the contractors would only drive upstanding businesses into bankruptcy. .... (NYDaily News Editorial, Oct. 17, 2007)
  
• City talking billion-dollar settlement with sick 9/11 workers ... The city wants to cut a billion-dollar deal with 9,000 Ground Zero workers who blame their lingering illnesses on toxins they inhaled at The Pile, the Daily News has learned. Thousands who've signed on to a federal class-action suit received a six-page letter from their lawyer last week, asking permission to negotiate with the city on the terms of an expected payout. "The City of New York and the contractors have indicated that they want to negotiate a global or aggregate settlement on behalf of all our WTC clients," reads the letter from lawyer Marc Bern. The letter lays out the pros and cons of signing a deal, including taking a lesser payout now to avoid a decades-long legal battle. Previously, the city has shown little interest in talking settlement and has attacked the plaintiffs' claims in Federal Court. The city and its contractors have been unsuccessful in trying to get a federal judge to toss out the claims before they go to trial. Yesterday, both sides declined to discuss the letter, citing a confidentiality order. Bern's clients have until the end of the month to decide whether to give him permission to begin settlement talks for them. Those who don't can continue their own litigation, but there's a good chance that Bern's firm won't handle their case. "If we receive an aggregate settlement offer from the defendants, it will be up to you and our other clients to accept or reject the offer and, if you accept it, to agree on how the [money] would be divided," Bern wrote. "The defendants would have nothing to do with that decision." Victim advocates are skeptical the $1 billion in federal insurance will be enough to cover care for the long-term respiratory illnesses of thousands of people, not to mention compensate the families of more than 150 who blame their loved ones' deaths on work at Ground Zero. "If you do the math, it's not that handsome a settlement for the 9/11 responders," said John Feal, a responder and Ground Zero activist. Feal said he has talked to 25 people who've signed on to the suit and 22 who say they will give Bern's firm permission to talk settlement. Their only other option would be to go on their own for a settlement that could take decades, Feal added. Many suffer from respiratory ailments they link to arsenic, asbestos and other toxins released into the air after the towers fell Sept. 11, 2001. Kenneth Feinberg, the lawyer who administered the September 11 Victim Compensation Fund, has pegged the cost of settling the suit at $1.5 billion. Feinberg's fund shut down after doling out $7 billion to compensate the families of those who were killed or those injured in the attacks.He recently voiced support for reopening the fund to sick workers shut out because their illnesses had yet to manifest themselves. (NYDaily News, by Thomas Zambit, Oct. 16, 2007)
  
• City To Talk With Sick World Trade Center Workers ... Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Tuesday that the city is ready sit down and talk with the 9,000 workers who have filed a class action suit claiming they became sick because of toxic dust at the World Trade Center site. In the past, the city had unsuccessfully tried to get the class action suit thrown out, but Tuesday, there was a report that a letter was sent to the plaintiffs regarding negotiations. The mayor confirmed that but said not to read to much into it. "We are not making any offers. I can only tell you this: every time you get sued you always take a look and see whether there is a way to come to a settlement which would be in everybody's interest,” said Bloomberg.(NY1, Oct. 16, 2007)
  
• DEUTSCHE DEMOLITION DERBY ... Six companies are vying for the contract to finish demolishing the former Deutsche Bank building, allaying fears that no company would want to touch the seemingly cursed project, The Post has learned. Among the bidders is Gramercy Wrecking and Environmental, a Westbury, L.I., company that's been doing repairs on the problem-plagued tower since an Aug. 18 inferno there killed two firefighters. Other likely bidders, sources say, include LVI Environmental, which had previously bid on the project, and a joint venture between Pinnacle Environmental and P.A.L. Environmental Safety, which is demolishing nearby Fiterman Hall. The Massachusetts-based Testa Corp. is also in the running. On Aug. 21, Mayor Bloomberg said, "When we went out for contractors to perform this work, there was only one willing to take [it] on." Actually, 14 firms had expressed interest in the project to the general contractor, Bovis Lend Lease, in early 2006. But 13 dropped out or were rejected, leaving the relatively inexperienced John Galt Corp. with the $60 million job. The Lower Manhattan Development Corp., the state agency that owns the site, wants to resume demolition next month. (NYPost, by Chuck Bennett, Oct. 16. 2007)
  
• Mayor Bloomberg: No deal making for sickened 9/11 workers ... Mayor Bloomberg warned on Tuesday that "we aren't making any deals" with Ground Zero workers who blame their sickness on toxins they inhaled at The Pile - yet. "Any time you get sued, you always take a look at whether there is a way to come to a settlement which would be in everybody's interest," he said. "There is no reason to think that we can come to a settlement or reason to believe we can't come to a settlement. ...We are just going to talk and explore." The Daily News reported yesterday that thousands of sick 9/11 responders who joined a federal suit received a letter from their lawyer asking for permission to negotiate a payout. Settlement talk is an about-face for the administration, which repeatedly tried to get the case tossed out. The cost of settling the suit could hit $1.5 billion, said Kenneth Feinberg, who oversaw the Sept. 11 Victim Compensation Fund. Marvin Bethea, a paramedic who suffers from respiratory illnesses he attributes to his work, said: "I guarantee you that this money is going to go in one hand and out the other because so many of these people are already in debt."Meanwhile, Bloomberg vowed to keep pressuring Washington to come up with cash to aid ailing Sept. 11 responders. "We need federal moneys to take care of an obligation that the city really cannot handle, and we need that money now," he said. (NYDaily News, Oct. 16, 2007)
  
• BUILDING BIG EYED IN DEUTSCHE BLAZE ... Criminal investigators probing the deadly Deutsche Bank fire are taking a hard look at a former top downtown development official, The Post has learned. Law-enforcement sources say Charlie Maikish, the former chief of the Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center, is the man who can answer many questions about what went wrong during the demolition of the 9/11-scarred tower. Two firefighters were killed trying to put out an August 18 blaze in hellish conditions complicated by numerous safety violations, such as blocked stairwells and a dismantled standpipe that was supposed to bring water to their hoses. "He has responsibility for being the guy in charge," a law-enforcement source said of Maikish. "The LMCCC should have been on top of this." The Manhattan district attorney has launched a criminal investigation into the fire and has subpoenaed documents from the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., contractors Bovis Lend Lease and the John Galt Corp., and the FDNY, among others. Maikish, a former director of the World Trade Center, was appointed by then-Gov. Pataki in 2005 to lead the newly formed LMCCC to coordinate the 60 ongoing construction projects downtown. Then, late in 2006, day-to-day management of the Deutsche Bank demo job was handed to Maikish. A Maikish spokesman says he has not been asked to speak to the DA's office. He protested that he was too understaffed to "safely or efficiently" manage the project and that his team members "have been repeatedly denied resources" in a May 25 internal memo sent to Avi Schick, chairman of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. Schick has denied receiving the memo although Maikish insists it was hand-delivered. "He doesn't want to be blamed," the law-enforcement source said of Maikish. Investigators are also hoping to find out if Maikish decided against first decontaminating the building and then demolishing it in favor of doing both simultaneously. "It was totally Maikish's decision to go five floors at a time," said a source involved with the demolition project who added there was a lot of debate on how to tear down the building. "He was the czar. He was all-powerful." That decision was made sometime in the fall of 2005, soon after Bovis Lend Lease took over the demolition, the source said. The previous contractor, Gilbane Building Co., which also proposed simultaneous deconstruction and demolition, had dropped out of the project because of its complexity. "The means and methods to take down the buildings were determined by the LMDC long before Mr. Maikish got involved. It was LMDC's call," said Maikish's spokesman, Ken Frydman. "Mr. Maikish had no say in the matter. The LMDC dealt with regulators and planned the job." By contrast, the 15-story Fiterman Hall on 30 West Broadway, which was also severely damaged on 9/11, will first be decontaminated and then deconstructed. (NYPost, by Dareh Gregorian & Chuck Bennett, Oct. 15, 2007)
  
• GROUND ZERO COLLEGE HALL TO FINALLY COME DOWN ... nother ugly reminder of 9/11 is about to come down, officials said. State officials are finalizing plans to tear down Fiterman Hall, a 15-story Borough of Manhattan Community College classroom complex on 30 West Broadway that was irreparably damaged by debris and toxic dust in the collapse of 7 World Trade Center. Although a timetable has not been announced, the state Dormitory Authority, which is managing the project, should finalize a demolition plan by the end of the month, officials say. All that is left is approval by the Environmental Protection Agency. In the wake of the Aug. 18 Deutsche Bank blaze, safety is top priority, said Marc Violette, a Dormitory Authority spokesman. Inspectors from the FDNY have already made 21 visits to the site. The Long Island City-based PAL Environmental Safety Corp. received the $16.3 million contract to decontaminate the building and deconstruct it. It previously cleaned and demolished 4 Albany Street, a four-story building that was contaminated by toxic dust. The company has come under the scrutiny of regulators. In 2005, it paid a $10,000 fine for illegally dumping toxic debris removed from the Deutsche Bank building. Sal DiLorenzo, president of PAL Environmental, did not return calls for comment. ... (NYPost, by Chuck Bennett, Oct. 15, 2007)
• CONTRACTOR IN TRAGIC DEUTSCHE BOTCH: GIVE US $19M ... The scandal-scarred subcontractor fired from the Deutsche Bank demolition job after two firefighters died in an August fire is demanding to be paid $19.6 million for the work, according to a new lawsuit. The John Galt Corp. filed suit in Manhattan Supreme Court last week against the bond companies for the general contractor overseeing the demolition, Bovis Lend Lease. "John Galt fully performed all the work and furnished all of the labor, material, and equipment requested by Bovis," according to the suit. On Aug. 18, Firefighters Robert Beddia and Joseph Graffagnino died on the 14th floor of the bank building after they ran low on air and became overwhelmed in the thick smoke. Fire investigators found that Galt workers had cut a standpipe critical to the building's sprinkler system, preventing water from reaching the fire. The Manhattan District Attorney's Office has launched a wide-ranging criminal probe and has executed search warrants at the office of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., Bovis and Galt. Questions have also arisen as to why Galt was given the job. The company had little demolition experience and close ties to Safeway Environmental, which is run by an alleged Gambino family associate. And despite specific rules forbidding it, on-site smoking - the cause of the deadly blaze - was said to be routine. In addition, five days after the inferno, two more of New York's bravest were injured when a Galt employee dropped a 300-pound pallet jack from the building's 23rd floor. The company claims the value of the work was about $74 million. Bovis and its bond company refused to comment on the litigation. (NYPost, by Janon Fisher, Oct. 14, 2007)
• Manhattan: Bank Dismantling to Resume ... (NYTimes/AP, Oct. 12, 2007)
• 'DEUTSCHE' DOOM NEAR ... The embattled head of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. said yesterday he expects demolition of the ill-fated Deutsche Bank building to resume next month. "We hope the deconstruction will resume at the beginning of November," Avi Schick, chairman of the state agency tasked with overseeing the complex project, said after speaking at a Crain's New York breakfast forum. "We will remove this last ugly vestige and reminder of Sept. 11th." All abatement and demolition at the dust-contaminated building has been on hold since an Aug. 18 blaze there killed firefighters Robert Beddia and Joseph Graffagnino. Before any work can resume on the high-rise at 130 Liberty St., Bovis Lend Lease, which remains the lead contractor, has to pick a new subcontractor. A source close to the project said there are two or three finalists, but those companies still must be vetted by the city's Department of Investigation. Then an attack plan has to be finalized on how to bring down the remaining 26 floors of the tower. Before the fire, Bovis was simultaneously decontaminating and deconstructing the tower. The company may now opt to first decontaminate the entire building, then tear it down, which will require a new round of approvals by the federal Environmental Protection Agency, among other agencies. Delays in tearing down the blighted building, which was supposed to have been demolished by the end of this year, are impacting the timelines of other redevelopment projects. .... The Manhattan district attorney has launched a wide-ranging criminal probe and has executed search warrants at the offices of the LMDC, Bovis and John Galt. The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration did a surprise inspection at the site on Aug. 24, and found no violations, records show. (NYPost, by Chuck Bennett, Oct. 12, 2007)
  
• KICKING ASH SINCE DEUTSCHE ... The unprecedented sweep by fire marshals and the city's Department of Investigation netted 35 business owners, building owners and employees. "Business and building owners who think they can ignore fire safety rules had better think twice, because we will hold them accountable under the law," said Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta. Scoppetta has been a focal point of criticism in the wake of the Deutsche Bank blaze. The high-rise, which was under demolition, had a litany of serious fire-code violations but was never properly inspected by the FDNY. But officials yesterday said the code-violation sweep began before the fire near Ground Zero, which killed two firefighters on Aug. 18. In July, fire marshals and city inspectors began arresting people on bench warrants. To date, 12 people have been fined $9,850 for a slew of violations ranging from broken fire alarms, broken sprinklers and blocked exits to operating businesses without proper permits, according to the Department of Investigation. Individual fines range from $100 to $3,500. The FDNY also said there are hundreds of additional people in the city who have ignored summonses related to fire-code violations. These scofflaws may be picked up at any time - at work or at home - to answer before a judge why they never answered a summons for the violations. Separate from the sweep, the Fire Department has also engaged in a blitz of inspections at construction sites throughout the city since the Deutsche Bank fire. Nearly 500 sites were inspected, resulting in 122 violations as of last week. That is almost double the typical rate. All buildings under construction or demolition are supposed to be inspected every 15 days. And the Department of Buildings has issued 27 stop-work orders between the Deutsche Bank fire and last week. By comparison, 67 such orders were issued between January and the Deutsche fire. (NYPost, Oct. 11, 2007)
  
• Dad: We'll Get Culprits ... The father of a firefighter killed in the Deutsche Bank blaze near Ground Zero says investigators have not yet found who's responsible for his son's death, but he's confident they'll determine who's to blame for failing to enforce safety rules. "There are so many errors that took place that nobody's being held responsible for," said Joseph Graffagnino Sr., whose namesake son was one of two firefighters killed in the Aug. 18 blaze. "I think it's going to come out, but it's going to take time," he added. "It's difficult because it's such a many-fronted investigation . . . (NYPost, Oct. 11, 2007)
• Dismantling of WTC tower in deadly fire planned to resume in Nov. ... Schick said the multiple investigations by Manhattan prosecutors and others looking into the cause of the fire and the oversight of the building wouldn't slow down plans to take down the tower. .... (NYNewsday/AP, Oct. 11, 2007)
  
• Every little bit hurts... In 1976, W.R. Grace & Co. convinced the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to consider products containing less than one percent asbestos as non-asbestos containing products. What became known as the “Grace rule” allowed the company to continue selling Monokote, a fireproofing spray used in the construction of many U.S. buildings, including the World Trade Center. It also promulgated the asbestos industry assertion that asbestos is dangerous only in high quantities, even as some branches of the EPA declared it unsafe at any level. But now, according to a story in New Jersey-based newspaper The Times of Trenton, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report being released later this week will declare the Grace rule is based on an “arbitrary number” and that even low concentrations of asbestos can be harmful. When EPA first began cleaning up the asbestos left in Libby by W.R. Grace vermiculite mining, it adopted the stance that asbestos was unsafe at any level. But, when the World Trade Center buildings fell shortly after the Libby cleanup began, the Grace rule was embraced by the EPA as the standard for safe levels of exposure in Manhattan. W.R. Grace seized on the discrepancy between the Libby and Manhattan cleanups to argue that the one percent rule, if it was good enough in Manhattan, should be good enough in Libby. Grace’s argument seemed to work. The company sent letters to former EPA Chief Christine Todd Whitman pointing out the discrepancy. And, according Libby resident Gordon Sullivan, who once served as a liaison between the EPA and the town, the cleanup plan there went from the EPA removing all asbestos to “You clean it up.” The EPA distributed brochures to all mailboxes in Libby telling residents that it was okay to clean up asbestos with a HEPA vacuum cleaner and a wet rag, which is exactly what the agency was telling Manhattan residents to do. The EPA eventually withdrew the brochures in Libby after citizen complaints, but never backed off the Grace rule in Manhattan. The GAO report will likely provide ammunition to activists in Manhattan, and other places where Libby asbestos was sent, to demand stringent cleanup standards. (Missoulanews, by Paul Peters, 10/11/07)
• Ground Zero fire, deaths, spur questions ... Another factor contributing to the tragedy may have been subcontracting the demolition “on the cheap” to the John Galt Corp., an entity made up of executives of Safeway Environmental, a company criticized by New York City investigators because of ties to organized crime. The John Galt Corp. also has ties to Bloomberg’s administration. Another subcontractor, North American Site Developers, Inc., indicated that it withdrew from the project after its president got an anonymous telephone threat. The New York Daily News reports that state officials knew all along that yet another company, Rapid Demolition, with a history of worksite fires, was actually working on the demolition under subcontract to Safeway Environmental. John Galt Corp. has since been fired. Although the fire released toxic contaminants into the air of lower Manhattan, Bloomberg and city officials quickly gave an all-clear on air safety. ... Many say the main driving motive in this continuing drama has been the profits to be made from some of the world’s most valuable real estate. The scramble to get at least some part of the profits and the uncertainties of the real estate market, with the threat of a big downturn in the near future, has produced both an unseemly haste to move forward (running roughshod over sensibilities of victims’ families) and protracted struggles for control among city, state and federal agencies and developers (which have slowed down the rebuilding process considerably). .... (PWW, by Bill Davis, Oct. 11, 2007)
  
• Work on former Deutsche Bank tower to resume next month ... The owner of a condemned ground zero skyscraper says work to take down the building will resume next month. Avi Schick, chairman of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, says workers should finish resealing the former Deutsche bank tower later this month. Deconstruction stopped after the Aug. 18 fire that killed two city firefighters. Before the fire, officials had said the building would be taken down by the end of this year. Schick gave no estimate of when it would be finished. Twenty-six floors of the former 40-story building has been taken down. (NYNewsday/AP, Oct. 11, 2007)
  
• SIX YEARS LATER, DOUBTS HANG IN THE AIR RECENT DEVELOPMENTS STOKE ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS; INCIDENCE OF SOME DISEASES JUMPS BETWEEN 12 AND 20 TIMES NORMAL RATES Does the Danger Stop at the Fence? ... “The air is safe to breathe,” then-Environmental Protection Agency chief Christine Todd Whitman told residents of Lower Manhattan one week after September 11, 2001. In the years since, lingering doubts about those words have come to haunt people who labored at Ground Zero as well as those who live and work just outside the fence that still partitions the World Trade Center site from the surrounding streets. Recent developments have served to stoke these fears. In May, the City Medical Examiner ruled that the death of 42-year-old lawyer Felicia Dunn-Jones was directly related to Trade Center toxins. (Ms. Dunn-Jones died five months after 9/11 from sarcoidosis, a disease often associated with exposure to toxic substances.) Her office was a block away from the Trade Center and her only exposure occurred when she ran through the dust cloud generated by the collapsing towers. ...  In July, the Uniformed Firefighters Association revealed that more than 100 active or retired firefighters who worked at Ground Zero have developed some kind of cancer since 9/11. Eight have been diagnosed with thyroid cancer, a disease that primarily strikes women. In August, the City’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene released data from the the World Trade Center Health Registry showing that Ground Zero workers are developing asthma at a rate 12 times higher than the rest of the population. Also in August, the New York Post reported that the federally funded, City-run World Trade Center Captive Insurance Company, which holds more than $1 billion in government funds, paid out over $80 million in legal and administrative fees but disbursed less than $300,000 to Ground Zero workers. Senate Judiciary Committee chair Patrick Leahy and ranking member Arlen Specter have called for hearings to investigate the company’s workings. More than a dozen private insurance companies have announced that they will not honor claims made by sick Ground Zero workers because, they allege, the Captive Insurance Company failed to pass along notification of these claims by the required deadline.(BPC Broadsheet, By Matthew Fenton, Oct. 11 -26, 2007)
• Stress Caused By September 11 Disaster Linked To Low Birth Weights ... She said it was difficult to explain why these later peaks occurred. “It might be directly related to the disaster having occurred early in gestation, perhaps when the foetus was more susceptible to the effects of stress. Another hypothesis is that the Christmas and New Year holiday was a particularly emotional time after the disaster. The increase in very low birth weights (less than 1,500g) 33-36 weeks after September 11th suggests that exposure around the time of conception may also impact birth outcomes, although the exact mechanisms remain unknown.” .... (Science Daily, Oct. 11, 2007)
• Low birthweights linked to 9/11 ... The journal Human Reproduction reported a two-thirds increase in the risk of giving birth to a slightly underweight baby in the week after 9/11. The University of California at Berkeley researchers found it was higher even months later. However, a UK expert said other factors could have played a role. .... The New York study looked at information from more than 1.6 million birth certificates for babies born in the city between 1996 and 2002. They divided the babies into groups depending on how close to Ground Zero their families lived. Months later: Compared to the week leading up to 9/11, the following seven days say a higher risk of babies being born weighing less than 2kg. Normal birthweight is based on a figure of 2.5kg. There was a 67% increase in the risk of a baby weighing between 1.5 and 2kg, and a 44% increase in the chance of a baby weighing less than 1.5kg. In December 2001, the risk of a baby weighing less than 1.5kg was 36% higher than normal, and in January the risk was still 22% higher. The effect was not just confined to the immediate New York City area - in the surrounding areas, or "upstate" New York, the risk of a low birthweight baby was increased by 46% in January 2002. Different stresses: The researchers said that the initial shock of the attacks may have triggered early labour in some women close to the Twin Towers - while longer-term stresses for women across the whole of New York State may also have interfered with the pregnancy. Professor Brenda Eskenazi, who led the study, said: "We think the increased incidence in low birth weights is mainly due to stress-initiated early deliveries. "We observed immediate effects in New York City, but long-term effects both in the city and upstate. "This may indicate that higher levels of stress are necessary to induce acute effects on birth outcome, but that, in the longer term, women in both locations suffered stress as a result of the disaster and this is reflected in the later peaks in low birth weights." Dr Virginia Beckett, a spokesman for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, described the study as "interesting." But she said it was hard to draw any firm conclusions without knowing the week in pregnancy each baby was born - and whether they had been born naturally, induced, or by caesarean section. She said: "I don't think we fully understand the effects of stress on pregnancy - although we know that babies can respond to levels of the stress hormone cortisol in the mother's bloodstream." Professor Andrew Shennan, a consultant obstetrician with the charity Tommy's , said that stress might not be having a direct effect on the foetus or the mother. He said: "It's possible that some of these early births are due to decisions by doctors to deliver early. They may be intervening because of anxieties on the part of the mother. "It's difficult to determine the precise effect of stress on the pregnancy." (BBC, Oct. 10, 2007)
• Unions Accuse Fire Officials of Hindering Deutsche Bank Inquiry ... The dispute over responsibility for the Aug. 18 fire and the circumstances that led to the deaths of the firefighters, Robert Beddia and Joseph Graffagnino, involves a diverse group of entities. The subcontractor hired for the demolition was an organization made up of executives from one company without the requisite experience and two officials from another company under scrutiny by city investigators. The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, which owns the building, allowed its construction manager, Bovis Lend Lease, to hire the subcontractor, the John Galt Corporation. Fire Department officials say the development corporation did not share a plan for emergency escape from the bank building with fire officials. Even within the Fire Department there have been bitter recriminations between the fire commanders, who the Bloomberg administration has said failed to inspect the bank building properly, as required, and the department’s top brass, who the fire unions have maintained should have been aware that the building was not being inspected. ... (NYTimes, by Al Baker, October 10, 2007)
  
• WTC's Toxic Dust Still Raising Health Concerns in NYC ... Today NYC offers a few programs for victims of the aftermath. They can either consult with one of the member centers of the New York State Occupational Health Clinic Network or contact the World Trade Center Health Effects Treatment Program. The programs offer medical testing and treatments, along with counseling to the workers and volunteers who suffer health problems as a result of their work at the WTC. The treatments are provided free of charge if the patient can prove their health issues correlate directly to the WTC site. However, not all of the WTC symptoms have not been discovered by health officials. Names like "World Trade Center cough" has been used around within the city and in hospitals. (PACE by Valeriya Ivanova, News Release, 10/10/07)
  
• COMMISSIONER FOR LIFE ... Mayor Bloomberg yesterday granted Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta permanent tenure. "You can rest assured that Nick Scoppetta will be our fire commissioner from now for the next 812-odd days," Bloomberg vowed. Fine. Mike's mayor; that's his right. ... (NYPost, Oct. 10, 2007)
  
• UNION CRIES DEUTSCHE COVERUP ... FDNY officials are trying to thwart the investigation into the deadly Deutsche Bank building blaze by telling chiefs to stop sending e-mails about the high-rise blaze, union officials charged yesterday. "They have participated in a coverup of the facts," said Uniformed Firefighters Association President Steve Cassidy. "The New York City Fire Department leadership, Chief Cassano, and others have made it clear they do not want the truth to come out." Cassidy said FDNY officials have told chiefs to communicate only verbally to avoid any paper trail that could implicate the department in the chain of events leading up to the Aug. 18 high-rise inferno in which two firefighters died near Ground Zero. Department officials denied the accusation. ... (NYPost, by Patrick Gallhue and Chuck Bennett, Oct. 10, 2007)
  
• City's Fire Unions Accuse FDNY Of Cover-Up At Deutsche Bank Building ... The Fire Commissioner says allegations that the FDNY is hindering the investigation of the fire at the former Deutsche Bank Building are just not true. The unions for firefighters and officers claim Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta and his staff have given specific orders about what to look into – and what to avoid. Union officials also say MetroTech is covering up anything that proves it was aware of the building's violations. They also say the three officers who have been re-assigned are scapegoats for the administration. .... (NY1, Oct. 9, 2007)
  
• Can't Get Expenses Paid: 'Face' of 9/11 Ills Goes Unrecognized ... A lot of New Yorkers recognize Ivonne Sanchez's face, as it appears on Spanish-language posters in subway cars encouraging 9/11 first-responders to file for Workers' Compensation. Ironically, the retired Emergency Medical Technician who toiled at Ground Zero is having trouble getting the Law Department to pay for her own medical expenses. ... Ms. Sanchez is just one of many past and present Emergency Medical Service workers who find that their doctors don't get the bills paid by the Law Department or can't get medical authorization in a speedy fashion. Tony Vanaria, a retired Paramedic who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of working in a morgue after 9/11, has faced similar frustrations. "[He] is having a problem whereas the medical bills the Judge ordered paid, the NYC Law Department is refusing to pay," Marianne Pizzitola, president of the Uniformed FDNY EMS Retirees Association, said in an e-mail. "Tony gave the Judge a printout of all his medication. The Law Department told him they will not accept that as he could have printed it out himself." Law Department officials noted that many doctors' bills go unpaid for legitimate reasons, and doctors may take the department to arbitration. Claims Overcharges: "Doctors submit a bill and we respond by either paying it or objecting to it," said John Sweeney, the Chief of the Law Department's Workers' Compensation Division. "It's not uncommon to bill in excess, because it's not consistent with the fee schedule." Ms. Pizzitola and Thomas Eppinger, the president of Local 3621 of District Council 37, which represents EMS officers, testified Sept. 24 about these problems to the City Council's Health and Civil Service and Labor Committees. "EMS always fell through the cracks in my opinion," said Joseph Addabbo, the Civil Service and Labor Committee Chairman. "The bottom line is, it seems like although they're under the auspices of FDNY, in practice, when it comes to this issue of treating workers for 9/11, they seem to not be considered FDNY, and that obviously concerns me." ... (The Cheif-Leader, by Ari Paul, Oct. 12, 2007)
  
• THE MEANING OF 9/11 ... With a more than 30-point lead among Democrats, Clinton seems ever more likely to win her party's nomination. Giuliani's fate is less clear, though he remains a leader among GOP contenders. .... (NYPost Editorial, Oct. 8, 2007)
  
• Morgy’s Deutsche probe will not stop at crimes ... Any officials guilty of wrongdoing, but not crimes, in the deadly Aug. 18 Deutsche Bank fire, will be rebuked by District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, a source briefed on the investigation said. Morgenthau’s prosecutors are focused on possible crimes committed by contractors and government officials involved with the Deutsche demolition and fire, but the D.A. also plans to issue a public report outlining any other misdeeds, the source told Downtown Express. He spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing.“No stone will go unturned,” he said, adding that the city’s efforts to talk to witnesses first has raised prosecutors’ ire, but it will not block their investigation. The report will be akin to D.A. reports on police shootings, he added. It likely will be some time before it is released because it will follow the criminal probe. Fire investigators have concluded the blaze was started by a cigarette and that smoking was not uncommon in the building, even though it contained combustible materials and there was a no smoking rule. The building’s standpipe was broken and had not been tested in over a decade, leaving firefighters without a source of water. Numerous federal, state and city agencies were responsible for overseeing the demolition and it is owned by the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., a federally-funded public authority that is under the effective control of the governor. .... Prior to the fire, L.M.D.C. officials had repeatedly assured residents the demolition would proceed safely. Over the years, Community Board 1, environmental activists and local politicians raised concerns over many aspects of the project including the L.M.D.C.’s hiring of a contractor with alleged mob ties, John Galt Corp.; falling debris from the building; and fire safety violations. At the end of last year, the L.M.D.C. passed direct supervision of the Deutsche building to its subsidiary, the Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center and it has taken it back since the fire. Last week, it was revealed that Charles Maikish, the former executive director of the Construction Center, wrote a memo in May warning L.M.D.C. Chairperson Avi Schick that Maikish did not have enough staff to properly supervise the project. The memo was written soon after a 15-foot pipe fell off the building and crashed through the next-door firehouse, injuring two firefighters slightly. Errol Cockfield, Schick’s spokesperson, said the L.M.D.C. has no record that anyone ever received Maikish’s memo. But Maikish’s concerns about the project were not confined to a private memo. In June, he told C.B. 1 members that the push to speed up the demolition led to the pipe crash. “When you change the routine, that’s when things can go awry,” he said then. Downtown Express published a page 1 article about the meeting headlined “Deutsche rush led to mishap, official admits.” Maikish left the center and his spokesperson declined to comment. On Wednesday, the New York Times reported that Galt prepared a fire emergency plan, that was given to the L.M.D.C., but the development corporation never passed on the information to the fire department. Because of the building’s toxic chemicals in the building, the stairways were blocked with plywood and the emergency trap doors were unsafe for firefighters, the Times reported. Cockfield, the L.M.D.C., spokesperson, declined to comment on why the fire safety plan was never given to the fire department. (Downtown Express, By Josh Rogers, October 5 - 11 2007)
  
• Reporter's Notebook: City hires 9/11 pediatrician; W.T.C. work hours expand .... Community Board 1’s monthly World Trade Center Committee meeting once again highlighted a mix of problems and progress in the rebuilding effort. On the positive side, the city’s new W.T.C. Health “czar,” Jeffrey Hon, announced that the city has just hired a pediatrician to focus on 9/11 health issues and will soon be funding more studies on residents’ post-9/11 health. ... Following the announcement that the city would contribute additional funding to expand the free Bellevue Hospital W.T.C. health clinic, Hon met with the board Monday night to discuss the city’s health initiatives. He announced that a pediatrician is about to join the Bellevue clinic staff — something the community has long asked for. In addition, he said, the city’s W.T.C. Medical Working Group is preparing a set of guidelines for treating children who may have 9/11-related health problems. The group is also revising the current adult treatment guidelines and both guides are scheduled to be released in the first half of 2008. With the news that a pediatrician and medical guidelines are on the way, board member Tom Goodkind urged Hon to begin reaching out to the parents of affected children. “It would be nice just to get that ball rolling somehow,” Goodkind said. Hon balked at the suggestion, saying that the city needs to roll out its pediatric services slowly and quietly, otherwise the Bellevue program will not be able to handle the demand. The goal, he said, is to create clear medical guidelines so that children can be treated by their own doctors. After some discussion, Hon agreed to begin contacting local parent organizations and compiling lists of affected children, so the city can do outreach at the proper time. “It will be my responsibility to conduct outreach, but we have to make sure we have all our ducks in a row before we can do that,” Hon said. To seek treatment for a 9/11-related illness, residents and parents can call the Bellevue program at 877-982-0107. .... The money is part of a $100 million pot that also includes $45.9 million for Bellevue and two satellite clinics, $33.5 million for free 9/11-related mental health and substance abuse treatment, and $3.5 million in administrative costs. Ultimately, the city hopes that the federal government will step in to fund treatment, research and victims’ compensation, since 9/11 was, in Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s words, “an attack on America.” The city is also hoping to make the registry data more useful in the future by initiating yet another push for the 71,437 registry members to fill out their follow-up surveys. The follow-ups were released in 2006 and the deadline for responses has been extended several times. So far, roughly 60 percent of registry members have done the follow-up and the deadline is currently set at mid-December. ... (Downtown Express, By Skye H. McFarlane, October 5 - 11 2007)
  
• FIRE UNIT URGED A TOXIC-TOWER STRATEGY IN '04 ... Firefighters at Ladder Co. 10 were asking FDNY officials to draw up firefighting plans for the toxic Deutsche Bank building nearly three years before the fatal fire that swept through it this summer, The Post has learned. In a Dec. 4, 2004, memo, Ladder 10 Capt. Thomas Engel asked his division commanders to issue "standard operating procedures" for the Ground Zero building at 130 Liberty St. He noted that firefighters were twice called upon to enter the poison-filled structure for emergencies before hazardous-materials units could arrive on the scene. "This SOP should . . . address specific issues as it relates to operations within the building by first-due units prior to the arrival of Haz-Mat," Engel wrote. The memo is one of several sensitive documents that have surfaced since the Aug. 18 deaths of firefighters Joseph Graffagnino and Thomas Beddia at the building. The city recently sent the private lawyer it hired to the Ladder 10 house to make copies of all computer hard drives - even as Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau conducts a criminal investigation into the blaze. Lawyer Gary Naftalis, accompanied by an FDNY chief, also had an officer at the firehouse generate a report stating all relevant paperwork had been turned over to the city. A Law Department spokeswoman said the move didn't infringe upon the DA's criminal probe. "Counsel for the city was gathering documents that the DA has requested - and is cooperating with the DA's inquiry," she said. An FDNY source said Engel's memo came before the building had been cleared for demolition work, so any procedures would have been outdated by the time the razing began earlier this year. But even after getting Engel's memo - and several others in 2005 from officers in requesting guidelines for the toxic trap - the FDNY didn't issue a standard operating procedure for the building until Aug. 23. That was just a week after the fire, and six years after the 9/11 attacks filled the building with asbestos and other hazardous material. (NYPost, by Ginger Adams Otis, Oct. 7, 2007)
  
• 9/11 Labor rally: Mourning the dead and fighting for the living .... Standing in the shadow of the re-built 7 World Trade Center, hundreds of unionists rallied Sept. 8 in memory of the 9/11 dead and on behalf of the living. On that hot, sunny Saturday, next to the 16-acre construction site where the Twin Towers once stood, a two-hour procession of workers and labor leaders stepped up to the podium. They cast a harsh light on the treatment of the rescue and recovery workers since the attack six years ago. Politicians lent their voices to the ongoing campaign to win compensation, medical monitoring, and health care for those who are sick as a result of their selfless service. This year, in lieu of a Labor Day parade, the New York City Central Labor Council, the Building Trades Council, and the New York StateAFL-CIO used the 9/11 anniversary to call for the critical attention that must be paid to the living — those who are sick and in need of care. DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts addressed the assembled union members and spoke about the mounting toll of injured, ill and dying workers: “I am so proud of the many dedicated DC 37 members who worked at Ground Zero for weeks and months as part of the valiant rescue and recovery effort. Sadly, many now suffer the effects of being exposed to toxins in the air. We now must fear that this could be the beginning of the worst catastrophe of environmental poisoning in our city’s history.”(DC37, by Jane LaTour, October 2007)
  
• Appeals Court Lets Sept. 11 Suits Resume ... A federal appeals panel on Friday agreed that lawyers can resume their work on behalf of thousands of workers who say they were not properly protected as they cleaned up the World Trade Center site after the 2001 terrorist attacks. The legal work had temporarily stopped while lawyers for New York City and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey asked the court to give them immunity from nearly 8,000 workers' claims. A three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said it had not yet decided the immunity issue, but lawyers could resume gathering evidence for trials that might be years away. .... Lawyers said it appeared it could take three to four more years for the lawsuits to reach trial. .... (AP, by Larry Neumeister, Oct. 6, 2007)
  
• Call Him '9/11 Profiteer': Fire Families Torch Giuliani .... (The Chief, by Ari Paul, Oct. 5, 2007)
• Fiterman Hall Remediation Coming Soon ...With new scaffolding and netting erected this month, Fiterman Hall's remediation is expected to begin soon pending approval by environmental regulators. The update was shared by project officials on October 2^nd at a public meeting hosted by the Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC). Representatives from the City University of New York (CUNY) and the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York (DASNY), which own Fiterman Hall, spoke to community members alongside consultants from Airtek Environmental and Tishman Construction. CUNY Vice Chancellor Iris Weinshall began the meeting by stating that the Signature Theater would not be part of the new Fiterman Hall. She said that CUNY and other city officials determined that the tower will not be large enough to accommodate the three distinct performing-arts spaces the Signature requires. Weinshall also explained that CUNY expects approval for the year-long project soon from regulators from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), state Department of Labor, and other agencies. Meanwhile, air monitoring around the building began in April 2007 and continues, using lessons learned from the 130 Liberty Street project to "inform the Fiterman Hall deconstruction process," she said Airtek Vice President Benn Lewis added that the team may add switches at ground level to instantly shut off the negative air pressure system in the event of a fire or other emergency. Fire-retardant plastic, plywood, and sheetrock also will be used as necessary to seal the building and partition off cleaned areas. Andy Bachman from Tishman Construction said that the building has been made ready for remediation and deconstruction, including use of temporary lighting and signage within the building, as well as marked pathways for clear egress. Unused electrical circuits and wiring have been removed, and elevators are cleaned and operational for use during the cleaning. There are full-time site-safety managers on duty at Fiterman Hall, as well as 24-hour security teams and controlled site access. Independent environmental inspections are regular, as are site-specific worker training sessions and daily safety meetings. The project will be part of the city's pilot program for emergency community notification. The city Office of Emergency Management, also at the meeting, said that notification program planning is underway and should be rolled out soon. Stakeholders will be able to opt-in using their street address, email address, and phone numbers as contact information. Local Community Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) will be integral to the program. .... . (LowerManhattan.info, Oct. 4, 2007)
• Deutsche Bank Fire: Answers Still Elusive ... Ever since the Deutsche Bank building caught fire Aug. 18, burning out of control and killing two firemen, Downtown residents, among others, have demanded to know how the disaster was allowed to happen. But few answers have been forthcoming. The tangle of regulatory agencies, public development corporations and multiple layers of private contractors make those answers hard to come by, and those living near the building are yet to be reassured that the building site will be safer in the future. The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation—which owns the building and is responsible for its deconstruction—announced on Sept. 18 that work to seal the building was finally beginning, one month after the fire, and would likely take three weeks to complete. It also made a “tentative commitment” to first decontaminate the building before taking the rest of it down. The struggle to get this far illustrates the interagency gridlock that has frustrated residents eager to improve the safety of the building. On August 29, EPA Regional Administrator Alan Steinberg wrote a letter to LMDC Chairman Avi Schick, expressing dismay that 11 days after the fire, the building remained unsealed and open to the elements. Steinberg received no formal response to his letter, and wrote again on Sept. 7 to reiterate his concerns, particularly since he had learned that work had begun on the site without it being sealed and without prior notice to regulators. “I am concerned that these work activities and the implementation methods utilized by the LMDC in this breached building may cause a release of contaminated dust and debris,” Steinberg wrote. As evidence that recommencing work on the building without first resealing it could be risky, Steinberg pointed out that on Aug. 27 and 28, an air monitor mounted on the scaffolding surrounding the building recorded elevated levels of dioxin. The dioxin levels did not exceed the target level (the concentration thought to be dangerous to humans over 30 years of continuous exposure) and was not at all elevated at test sites farther from the building. But Steinberg said the readings showed that working in the Deutsche Bank building without sealing it can lead to the release of dangerous materials. .... On Sept. 18, Community Board 1 issued its formal response to the fire and its aftermath, voting unanimously to adopt an eight-page, 27-item resolution demanding transparency and responsiveness from the LMDC as it hires a new contractor and proceeds with the deconstruction. The resolution also calls for an Emergency Notification and Evacuation Plan to be put in place before demolition proceeds. Recent developments suggest that while progress can be made on the site, the politics that surround it are nearly as labyrinthine as the building itself, and potentially as toxic. The contractor responsible for the work has been fired, but the selection process for its replacement remains mysterious. The dismantled standpipe has been repaired, tested and approved, but details of a fire plan remain sketchy. Following the reassignment of three mid-ranking Fire Department officials pending investigations, the Firefighters Union called the suspended fire officials scapegoats. Real responsibility for the blaze, it said, lies at the top of the department. Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and U.S. District Attorney Robert Morgenthau have launched investigations into the cause of the blaze, prompting City Hall to hire a top-notch defense lawyer and urge firefighters to confer with his team before answering Morgenthau’s questions. ... (Tribeca Trib, by Nick Pinto, Oct. 1, 2007)
  
• 9/11 Cleaning Workers Battle Illness .... While recovery workers took on the monumental cleanup of the World Trade Center site, Lucelly Gil and thousands like her labored nearby, also helping to make Lower Manhattan habitable again. Gil, a Colombian immigrant, worked 12- and 14-hour shifts for $60 a day, sweeping away heaps of dust by hand in apartments, offices, restaurants and schools, protected by nothing more than a thin paper mask. Six years later, she has asthma, chronic pain in her nose, ears, head and chest, and painfully itchy skin. She says she is unable to work more than one day a week, and is surviving largely on the generosity of friends. “It's a terrible situation,” Gil said. “Everyone I know who did this work is sick. Everyone I know has to take medicine.” But even as public attention has focused on the plight of sick firefighters and other first responders, little mention is made of the thousands of cleaning workers like Gil who also were injured and enfeebled by their work. .... In the five years since the World Trade Center Medical Monitoring and Treatment Program was instituted, it has examined about 22,000 people. The most common symptoms exhibited by those screened by the program are psychological and respiratory, Landrigan said. Diminished lung function caused by pulmonary fibrosis is especially common, as is new-onset asthma and a hypersensitivity to odors, air pollution and allergens, called reactive airways disease. ...(Tribeca Trib, by Nick Pinto, Oct. 1, 2007)
  
• EMS Union Raps City: Flaws Remain In 9/11 Worker Aid .... Two City Council committees heard testimony Sept. 24 about alleged obstacles city agencies have presented to the medical treatment of 9/11 recovery workers and a Deputy Mayor's admission that some agencies need greater guidance on the issue. The Health and Civil Service and Labor committees held their third hearing in a series on the issue. Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Linda Gibbs and World Trade Center Health Coordinator Jeffrey Hon testified on behalf of the city.... (The Chief, by Ari Paul, Oct. 5, 2007)
  
• City shuts down work sites with Deutsche Bank-like hazards ... The number of FDNY inspections at construction sites has soared since the deadly Deutsche Bank fire and officials have stopped work at more than two dozen unsafe jobs, records show. The preliminary investigation into the Aug. 18 blaze that killed two firefighters revealed that the FDNY had, in large part, not been doing mandatory 15-day inspections at buildings being built or demolished, including the doomed bank building that overlooks Ground Zero. As part of a shakeup at the FDNY that resulted in the reassignment of three officers responsible for the inspections, Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta ordered the FDNY to find every construction site in the city and look for fire safety hazards. "It was a thorough review," an FDNY spokesman. "These inspections are now going to be permanent." After visiting 485 sites, FDNY inspectors found 122 unsafe conditions and relayed their findings to the Department of Buildings, a Fire Department spokesman said. Another 200 inspections were prompted by calls to the city's 311 phone system, the spokesman said. In the six-week period after the Aug. 18 fire, the DOB issued 27 stop-work orders that shut down construction sites across the city, records show. Before the fire, 67 stop-work orders had been issued in all of 2007. The FDNY will also soon begin inspecting the buildings under construction at the site of the former Trade Center, a construction area that was not previously being checked because it is not city-owned property. The Port Authority, which owns the site, has agreed to stop work if ordered to do so by the FDNY, a spokesman said. (NDaily News, by Jonathan Lemire, Oct. 4, 2007)
  
• Inspections after WTC fire uncover 120 plus violations ... A building being renovated into condominiums just blocks from ground zero was shut down after "accumulation of combustible debris resulted in fire on the first floor, which spread to the third floor," another report read. ... (Newsday, Oct. 4, 2007)
  
• Former Giant Takes Fight For 9/11 Workers To Nation's Capitol ... Martin's walk is expected to raise more than $10 million for 9/11 workers, and 44 house members have now co-sponsored the new legislation. ... (NY1, Oct. 4, 2007)
  
• An Escape Plan Stayed Hidden at a Fatal Fire ... Contractors demolishing the former Deutsche Bank building made a special plan to allow emergency use of the sealed stairs, but firefighters who responded to the fire on Aug. 18 did not know of the plan, according to official documents and interviews. The stairwells were sealed with heavy plywood and plastic to prevent toxic materials from escaping and hinged trap doors were put in the plywood slabs, yet the escape plan was never brought to the attention of firefighters assigned to respond to a fire in the building, fire officials say. Two firefighters were killed in the blaze. “The Fire Department was not involved in creating this plan, specifically — and most importantly — with regard to the sealed staircases,” said Francis X. Gribbon, the department’s chief spokesman. “We were not notified about it. We were not consulted about it.” ... Firefighters on other floors where the stairwells were also sealed resorted to using power saws to cut through the plywood because they did not know about the trap doors, accord