[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 76 (Wednesday, May 9, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H4743-H4749]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
DUST AND TOXINS FROM 9/11
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Ms. Sutton). Under the Speaker's announced
policy of January 18, 2007, the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs.
Maloney) is recognized for 60 minutes.
Mrs. MALONEY of New York. Madam Speaker, today on the House floor, we
passed a very important bill to reauthorize the Department of Homeland
Security. Tonight, we must take time to remember the horrific event
that made our Nation realize that we needed a Department of Homeland
Security to begin with, the attacks of September 11, 2001.
We will never forget that fateful day and the thousands of people who
lost their lives, and now we know that thousands more lost their
health.
We must not forget the firefighters, police officers, EMTs and other
first responders who bravely rushed to save the lives of others, even
as everyone else was running in the opposite direction.
Within hours of the collapse of the World Trade Center, those first
responders labored alongside hard hats and average New Yorkers without
regard for their own health or safety. They spent countless hours
working the pit, sifting through the rubble, hoping against hope that
they would be able to rescue someone trapped deep below.
Unfortunately, as the days went on and the mission turned from a
rescue-and-recovery mission to a cleanup site, these brave men and
women stayed. While they labored, most were not given the proper
respiratory equipment, and all were given inaccurate information about
the quality of the air they were breathing. They were told that the
``air was safe to breathe.'' They were told that it was not a health
hazard to be there.
Let us take a closer look: This air, the air enveloped by this
massive toxic dust cloud, they said was safe to breathe. Unfortunately,
we now know better. We know more about what was in that cloud, a
poisonous cocktail of thousands of tons of coarse and fine particulate
matter, pulverized cement and glass and other toxic pollutants.
To the mix were added 24,000 gallons of burning jet fuel and
plastics, which created a dense plume of black smoke containing cancer-
causing volatile organic compounds, dioxins and hydrocarbons, a
specific combination of toxins probably never seen before and hopefully
that we will never see again.
And all of this went into the mouths, throats and lungs of tens of
thousands of workers while they tirelessly worked long shifts, not
thinking first of their health but of serving this great Nation.
Later in this hour, I am going to share with you the stories of the
individual brave men and women who worked at ground zero, but now let
me just share one about the dust.
This is a story from Denise Bellingham of Long Island, New York. In
her own words, as reported in the New York Daily News, she said, ``The
air was indescribable,'' as you can see. ``You couldn't eat anything
that wasn't covered with dust. We had paper masks, but they were no
good. Condensation from breathing turned the mask into mud. It was
worse to breathe with it on. We got respirators about a week into it,
but they were not fit-tested. They just came in boxes, and we grabbed
one that might fit.
``I worked more than 300 hours at ground zero. I considered it a
thank you to America, a chance to do something for my country and for
my fellow New Yorkers and for my co-workers who were buried in the
rubble.
``We never expected anything to go wrong. Every day we were told the
air was safe to breathe. Working down there as a team gave us healing.
We could feel all the angels, all the people who had died there.''
Again, that was one of the personal accounts of work at ground zero,
as reported in the Pulitzer Prize-winning Daily News series on the
Forgotten Heroes of 9/11.
Now, well over 5 years after 9/11, we are seeing the potentially
deadly effects on the thousands who worked around ground zero. This is
in addition to the untold numbers of residents, area office workers and
school children also exposed to the toxins of ground zero but have
never received any medical monitoring or assistance from the Federal
Government.
We have numerous peer-reviewed, scientific studies linking people's
sicknesses to the toxins of ground zero.
Last year we learned from Mount Sinai, an important hospital in my
district, and the World Trade Center Medical Monitoring Program that 70
percent of 9/11 responders suffered respiratory problems and 60 percent
are still sick as a direct result of their work at ground zero. Making
matters worse, nearly 40 percent of those screened have no health
insurance, and for those who do have insurance, work-related illnesses
are most often not covered.
We also learned from the fire department that the average New York
City firefighter has lost 12 years of lung capacity following their
service at ground zero, and many have been forced to retire or be
reassigned due to their 9/11 illnesses.
And just 2 days ago, a new report from the fire department and
Einstein College of Medicine in New York clearly linked World Trade
Center dust to a rare type of lung-scarring disease, sarcoidosis, which
involves an inflammation that produces tiny lumps of cells in the
lungs. In some cases, the illness gets progressively worse and can be
fatal.
Let there be no doubt. We now have scientific proof that the 9/11
health crisis is real, and that it is truly a matter of life and death.
{time} 2130
Tonight I want everyone listening to understand this. The 9/11 health
crisis is not only a New York City problem. The attacks on 9/11 were
attacks against our Nation, not just New York. The whole country was
touched; and, in the aftermath, people from every State in the Nation
were exposed to these toxins while they assisted in the massive rescue
recovery and cleanup efforts. Whether you came from California,
Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Hawaii, Alaska, you breathed in the
same toxic air.
Last month, Congressman Vito Fossella and I released a report showing
that Americans from all 50 States were exposed to the aftermath of 9/11
and have serious concerns about their health.
This map shows how many people from each State enrolled in the World
Trade Center Health Registry, which is a comprehensive health survey of
those most heavily exposed to the toxins of Ground Zero. Those who
enrolled answered a 30-minute telephone survey about where they were
and what they did on 9/11, and they were asked to report the status of
their health. This will allow health professionals to compare the
health of those most exposed
[[Page H4744]]
to the events of 9/11 with the health of the general population.
Over 71,000 people who met the eligibility requirements of direct
exposure decided to enroll in the registry. We know that there are an
estimated 410,000 people who would have been eligible, meaning that
410,000 people were likely directly exposed to the deadly toxins of 9/
11.
Of the 71,000 people who were concerned enough about their health to
enroll, over 8,000 live in New Jersey, over 1,200 live in California,
another 1,200 live in Florida, 156 live in Arizona, 350 live in
Georgia, 238 in Maryland, and 341 live in Texas. At least 28 people
came from as far away as Hawaii.
The list goes on and on, but the message of this map is clear: This
is a national emergency, and it deserves a strong Federal response.
Over 1,000 people are from Pennsylvania, including Ryan McCormick,
who came to Ground Zero from Representative Dent's district in
Pennsylvania. His father, David McCormick, sent me an e-mail explaining
that Ryan was a paramedic for University Hospital in Newark, New
Jersey, who came to the aid of New York in our country in our time of
need.
In his 5 days at Ground Zero, he served in many capacities. A year
and a half later, he came down with Hodgkin's Disease, a cancer of the
lymphatic system. He has undergone a great deal of chemotherapy and
radiation, but nothing has worked. We sincerely thank Ryan for his
service to our country, and we pledge that we will not forget his
service or his health needs.
I also thank him for his hard work in getting the message out to
country and Congress that we cannot forget the heroes of 9/11, and I am
told that he is with us tonight in the gallery. We want to personally
thank you for your service and your courage.
With a problem of this scope, what we need right now is a plan from
the current administration on how they intend to medically monitor
everyone who was exposed to the deadly toxins at Ground Zero, and we
need a plan to treat everyone who is sick. That is the least that we
can do for these heroes and heroines.
Along with my colleagues in New York and our entire delegation, I
have been calling for a plan for years now. We don't have a plan yet,
but we have made some important progress.
After a long fight with the administration, in May, 2003, we were
successful in securing $90 million for medical monitoring for
responders.
Then, with the leadership of Representative Shays, the Government
Reform Committee started a series of important congressional hearings
bringing this topic to light.
Then, after the President actually rescinded, they took out of the
budget $125 million meant for New York recovery efforts, the New York
delegation fought to have the $125 million restored in October of 2005.
Of that, $50 million was set aside for workers' compensation, and $75
million was for medical monitoring and treatment. This was the first-
ever Federal funding for treatment of sick 9/11 responders.
Unfortunately, then we had to fight just as hard to get that $75
million out of the hands of the Department of Health and Human Services
and to the doctors and patients that need to be monitored and treated.
Finally, in late fall of this year, the $75 million was finally
released to help the men and women who helped so many on 9/11.
While we were fighting to get that funding released, we took a step
closer to having a coordinated Federal response when the Director of
the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, Dr. John
Howard, was appointed at the request of the New York congressional
delegation as the Federal coordinator for 9/11 health issues in
February of 2006.
Since his appointment, we have seen the release of the first clinical
guidelines on the physical health effects many have suffered from the
World Trade Center attacks and a draft of autopsy guidelines.
We have also seen Assistant Secretary John Agwunobi appointed as
leader of a task force on 9/11 health within the Department of Health
and Human Services. While we were promised a plan from this new task
force between February of this year, Congress has yet to see one. We
still do not have a plan from the administration to medically monitor
everyone exposed to those deadly toxins and treat those who are sick as
a result of exposure in their hard work at Ground Zero.
That is why, along with Congressman Fossella, I have introduced a
resolution which calls on the administration to create a comprehensive
long-term plan to medically monitor everyone exposed and treat those
who have become sick.
Along with many Members of Congress, I have also introduced the first
comprehensive authorizing legislation to care for both the health and
economic well-being of all those affected. Named after New York City
Police Detective James Zadroga, one of the first 9/11 responders to
have his death directly attributed to his exposure to the toxins of
Ground Zero, this legislation combines and builds upon two pieces of
legislation that we have previously introduced in the 108th and 109th
Congress, the Remember 9/11 Health Act and the James Zadroga Act to
reopen the Victims' Compensation Fund.
H.R. 1638, the James Zadroga Act, the 9/11 Health and Compensation
Act, has four main components. It provides, first, for medical
monitoring and treatment; secondly, compensation; thirdly, research;
and, fourthly, coordination.
To provide medical monitoring and treatment, the James Zadroga Health
and Compensation Act continues and expands the current programs at
three Centers for Excellence dedicated to 9/11 health issues to all
people exposed to the toxins of 9/11, including first responders,
rescue, recovery and cleanup workers, area residents, office workers
and students. It would ensure that everyone exposed is monitored, and
everyone who is sick is treated.
With regard to compensation, the legislation reopens the September 11
Victims' Compensation Fund to provide individuals who have become sick
with 9/11 compensation for their loss. We can't make a person whole by
helping them with their health but not addressing their economic needs.
For research, H.R. 1638 directs the Department of Health and Human
Services to conduct or support diagnostic and treatment research for
health conditions that are associated with the exposure to the
terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
To ensure coordination, the bill establishes the 9/11 Health
Emergency Coordinating Council for the purpose of discussing, examining
and formulating recommendations to improve coordination between the
Federal, State and local problems and getting those governments on all
three levels to work together.
Passing long-term comprehensive legislation like this, and securing
funding in the meantime, has proven to be a long, hard fight. Those who
are sick from 9/11 are fighting for their lives, and we cannot forget
them.
I stand here tonight to promise that I will not rest until we have a
system in place that medically monitors everyone exposed to the deadly
toxins and treats who is sick. On 9/11, we had many, many people rush
to save the lives of others, and many worked for days to help others.
One of my colleagues has a constituent who is suffering from his
exposure. He has been treated with chemotherapy. He, I understand, is
here in the gallery tonight, up here. We applaud him and thank him for
his service. Our prayers, our thoughts, our hope, our work to pass this
legislation is for you and for other workers like you who went to help
others after the deadly attacks.
I now yield to my good friend and colleague from the great State of
Pennsylvania that had over 1,000 of their residents now registered in
the official registry of those who worked at Ground Zero and whom we
need to monitor for the next 20 or 30 years.
Mr. DENT. I would like to thank the gentlelady from New York (Mrs.
Maloney) for arranging this opportunity to come to the floor to raise
awareness of the ongoing effects of 9/11.
I am proud to say that so many from Pennsylvania answered the first
call very, very quickly, among some of the first there after the New
Yorkers, who helped deal with the aftermath of those horrible attacks.
As we all know, September 11, 2001, was one of the darkest days in
American history. Nearly 3,000 innocent people were killed in separate
incidents in
[[Page H4745]]
New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia. These attacks were intended to
instill fear in our hearts and minds and to shake our American spirit.
They did not have that desired effect. Instead, they unified a Nation
and strengthened the resolve of the American people. I neglected to
mention that one of my own relatives was in the North Tower and,
thankfully, made it out. He was on the 91st floor, made it out. All of
his colleagues did, too, but nobody above them did. So this issue has
touched us all in many ways.
September 11, and the long days that followed, bore witness to
inspiring acts of heroism and self-sacrifice. As rescue and recovery
efforts unfolded, we saw Americans reaching out to one another, united
in a determination to make the country whole again.
Whether it was neighbor helping neighbor or stranger helping
stranger, Americans from across the country simply gave of themselves,
and operating at the front lines of this effort were local first
responders. I would like to take this opportunity to talk about one of
those first responders, a selfless and heroic individual by the name of
Ryan McCormick.
Ryan, a native of Bethlehem Township in my district, has led a life
of service that we should all try to emulate. An Eagle Scout of the
Minsi Trails Council, Ryan committed himself to public service at a
very young age. Whether he was volunteering at the Bethlehem Township
Volunteer Fire Company, performing search and rescue operations with
the Civil Air Patrol, or defending our Nation as an 8-year veteran of
the United States Army Reserve, Ryan has always been concerned about
the well-being of others.
Taking the Boy Scout motto of ``Be Prepared'' to heart, Ryan was,
indeed, prepared and acted without hesitation on that fateful Tuesday,
Tuesday morning of September 11. Ryan was working as a paramedic in
Newark, New Jersey, when his unit was dispatched to the terrorist
attacks. Relying on his years of preparation and experience and firmly
committed to helping others, Ryan worked tirelessly from September 11
to September 13. The work was hard, dirty and dangerous and
heartbreaking. But Ryan persisted. For him, duty came first.
{time} 2145
But Ryan McCormick paid a terrible price for his determination and
resolve. In late 2002, Ryan started to become sick. In the spring of
2003, he was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease, a cancer of the
lymphatic system. He has undergone consistent treatment for over 4
years, including a stem cell transplant. He is still fighting valiantly
against his cancer and soon hopes to be well enough for another stem
cell transplant.
But Ryan is not alone. Many of the first responders who worked to
ease the suffering of the innocent are now suffering life-threatening
illnesses. Fortunately, Ryan, like the rest of his first responder
colleagues, is a fighter. And I am proud to let you know that Ryan has
joined us tonight and is seated in the Gallery.
Ryan continues to battle this cancer while continuing his service to
others. Ryan is the director of emergency management for New Jersey's
largest health care system, serves as the Essex County emergency
management deputy EMS coordinator and is a lieutenant for the Verona,
New Jersey, rescue squad.
In addition, Ryan has started a nonprofit corporation that raises
money to buy iPods for cancer patients undergoing cancer treatment.
This organization is named Project Turtle Pods, and more information
about this endeavor can be found at www.projectturtlepods.com.
Ryan, the House of Representatives welcomes you and thanks you for
your courageous service on September 11th. You exemplify all that is
great about the American spirit.
As ranking member of the Homeland Security Committee's Subcommittee
on Emergency Communications, Preparedness and Response, I am very well
aware of the sacrifices our country's first responders make to ensure
the safety of others. In turn, we in Congress must take on the
responsibility of protecting those who sacrifice to protect us. That is
why I have agreed to cosponsor Representative Maloney's bill, House
Resolution 128, which urges the Department of Health and Human Services
to prepare a long-term, comprehensive plan to medically monitor all
individuals who were exposed to the toxins of Ground Zero.
Of all the lessons we learned from the terrorist attacks of 9/11,
there is one first and foremost that stands out: We must not forget
those individuals who continue to suffer in the aftermath of these
events. The spirit found in Ryan McCormick is fundamentally American.
It is this can-do attitude that assures us that we as a Nation can rise
to meet any challenge that we encounter. Let us follow the example that
Ryan has set for us and help those who are suffering from afflictions
precipitated by their involvement in the 9/11 rescue, recovery and
cleanup efforts. The people who gave so much to us at that site deserve
nothing less.
Again, I want to thank the gentlelady from New York (Mrs. Maloney)
for tonight's opportunity to speak on this important issue and her
commitment to our Nation's first responders. I want to thank her for
her friendship and her leadership on this issue.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mrs. MALONEY of New York. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his
statement. I thank him for working so hard not only for Ryan McCormick,
his constituent, but all the men and women who came from every State in
this Nation, including Alaska and Hawaii, to work at Ground Zero and to
try to help save lives and to try to clean up the debris that was
there.
As I mentioned earlier, the New York Daily News Editorial Board won
the Pulitzer Prize for its groundbreaking series of editorials
entitled, ``9/11, The Forgotten Victims.''
Now, I would like to share with you an excerpt from this award-
winning series. It is called, ``Abandoned Heroes.''
``They cough. They wheeze. Their heads and faces pound with the
pressure of swollen sinuses. They lose their breath with minor
exertion. They suffer the suffocation of asthma and diseases that
attack the very tissues of their lungs. They endure acid reflux, a
painful indigestion that never goes away. They are haunted by the
mental and emotional traumas of having witnessed horror. Many are too
disabled to work, and some have died.''
Like Ryan McCormick, who is with us tonight in the Gallery, there
were many other heroes. Another hero was Christopher Hynes, and I would
like to discuss him, from this award-winning series:
``For Christopher Hynes, life as a forgotten victim of 9/11 is a
battle of breath. Five years ago, Hynes was a 30-year-old, healthy,
nonsmoking New York City police officer. Then, in September and October
2001, he was assigned to Ground Zero duty, spending more than 100 hours
patrolling the area of the smoldering rubble of the Twin Towers. The
air was thick with dust and smoky particles.
``Today, Hynes, married and the father of a 4-year-old son, has
sarcoidosis, a disease that scars lung tissues, and asthma, a disease
that inflames and obstructs the airways of the lungs. He coughs
constantly and cannot exert himself without losing breath. He survives
with the help of steroids and performs restricted duties for the police
department.
`` `I will probably have this for the rest of my life,' he says.''
We must not forget him. We must provide him with health care and
monitoring and treatment for the rest of his life.
Mr. Speaker, I now would like to recognize my good friend and
colleague, Gerald Nadler, who represents the Ground Zero area and has
worked tirelessly on this issue. I grant the gentleman 7 minutes.
Mr. NADLER. I thank the gentlelady.
Mr. Speaker, when the World Trade Center collapsed on September 11,
2001, the towers sent up a plume of poisonous dust that blanketed Lower
Manhattan, Brooklyn, and parts of Queens and into New Jersey. A toxic
mixture of lead, dioxin, asbestos, mercury, benzene and other hazardous
contaminants swirled around the site of the disaster and far afield as
rescue workers labored furiously in the wreckage, many without adequate
protective
[[Page H4746]]
gear. Thousands of first responders inhaled this poisonous dust before
it settled onto and into countless homes, shops and office buildings.
Immediately after the collapse, and for the weeks after that, the
Environmental Protection Agency had the responsibility of being the
lead agency responsible for ensuring the safety of the hundreds and
thousands of people who live and work and attend school in Lower
Manhattan, Brooklyn and Jersey City, and of the first responders.
Instead, the EPA and the Federal Government betrayed the people who
live in New York and betrayed all the first responders, the police
officers and the fire officers, and the volunteers from all over who
came to help us clean up. It betrayed them in two ways.
First, the EPA assured all that the environmental conditions in New
York were not hazardous and that the health of those near the plume was
not in danger. Former EPA administrator Christine Todd Whitman
irresponsibly declared within a few days after 9/11 that the air was
safe to breathe and the water was safe to drink, and EPA continued
saying that when they had plenty of data to say it wasn't true. The EPA
and the Federal Government lied, and because of these lies, people are
sick and dying today. The air was not safe. There is no doubt the EPA
initiated two separate cover-ups that go on to this day.
For years, the Federal Government, the State government, the city
government insisted that there was no evidence, no proof that people
who were getting sick, that fire officers and police officers who had
annual exams and had been healthy all the time and who suddenly could
not breathe and could not work, this had nothing to do with the World
Trade Center. You couldn't prove it was because they were poisoned by
the atmosphere.
It was only last September, in September 2006, 5 years after the
World Trade Center collapsed, that this cover-up unraveled.
A study released last September by Mount Sinai Hospital found that of
the more than 9,000 first responders examined in that study, 70 percent
suffered health problems related to their work at Ground Zero.
The evidence continues to pile up. Yesterday, the New York Times
reported a clear link between World Trade Center dust and life-
threatening disease. And yet, until very recently, the Health
Department and the City of New York continued to deny that this was the
case.
The City of New York continues to contest every workers comp case
filed because, obviously, these are all malingerers; nothing was true.
The article in yesterday's Time cites reports by doctors from the
fire department of New York and the Albert Einstein Medical College
which again confirm what we have known, that all honest people have
known for years: that we are facing a major health crisis as a result
of September 11th. And we know that these conditions are very often
long-lasting, life-lasting and that they go on and on.
In the days and weeks after 9/11, New York City firefighters and
police officers joined with workers and volunteers from all 50 States
to aid in the colossal rescue and recovery effort. But more than 5
years later, the Federal Government has not begun to do its part.
To this day, there has been no comprehensive program by the Federal
Government to monitor, as Mrs. Maloney said, to monitor the health of
all the victims, the firefighters, the cleanup workers. There has been
no provision of medical services.
The President finally, in this year's budget that we are now
debating, proposes supplying $25 million. And yet we know that the cost
of caring for these people will be probably in the neighborhood of $300
million per year for the indefinite future.
For every day that goes by, more and more people become sick and are
diagnosed with illnesses that their doctors attribute to the
contamination of the World Trade Center. That is why a number of pieces
of legislation have been introduced. For instance, Senators Clinton,
Menendez, Schumer and Kennedy, and in this House, Congressman Towns,
Engel, Weiner, and I have introduced the 9/11 Heroes Health Improvement
Act of 2007, which would provide more than $1.9 billion in Federal
funding for medical and mental health screening, testing, monitoring
and treatment grants for institutions that provide care to those whose
health was affected in the 9/11 attacks, for the next 6 years, this
would cover.
And that is just the first cover-up. The second cover-up is that we
know that the World Trade Center contamination settled in Lower
Manhattan, in Brooklyn, in Queens, probably in Jersey City, in many
neighborhoods, buildings and onto streets. Nature cleans up the outdoor
air, but it doesn't clean up the indoor air. The rain washes away dust
in the outdoors; the wind blows it away. But nothing removes the
indoors. People were told, don't worry, it is safe to move back to
Lower Manhattan. In high school, students were told to go back after a
week. And yet, we know that the indoor contamination was not dealt with
properly. We know that, unless properly cleaned up, professionally
cleaned up, indoor spaces are still contaminated; that even if you went
in, as the New York City Department of Health urged, and said, ``If you
see World Trade Center dust in your apartment, clean it up with a wet
mop and a wet rag,'' and the EPA echoed this advice. This, too, was a
betrayal, because not only is that advice illegal because we know that
much of that dust had asbestos in it, and it is illegal to remove
asbestos-laden material, to move it, to touch it, to deal with it
unless you are properly licensed to, certified to do so and wearing
equipment. But EPA and the City of New York Health Department told
people to remove it with a wet mop and a wet rag.
We also know that, if you did that, besides being illegal, you
probably inhaled some of it. And the very often immigrant workers hired
by fly-by-night firms, who, not professionally, did this probably
inhaled a lot of it. And we also know that, if you did it, you didn't
thoroughly do it; that the dust settled into the porous wood surfaces
and into the carpets and the drapes and behind the refrigerator and
into the HVAC systems. And where the toddler crawls on the rug today
and loosens that dust into the air, that toddler is being poisoned
today. We probably have thousands or tens of thousands of people all
over Manhattan and Brooklyn and Queens and Jersey City who are being
poisoned today and who we will see come down with asbestosis and
mesothelioma and lung cancer 15 years from now, because it has never
been properly cleaned up because the EPA continues to deny its
responsibility.
The EPA ombudsman's office was called in at my request in February
and March of 2002, and held hearings to see what could be done about
this. What happened? The EPA abolished the ombudsman's office.
The EPA set up, at Senator Clinton's request, a scientific advisory
body to look into this. They started saying, ``Hey, wait a minute. We
have got a major problem here.'' What happened? They were disbanded by
the EPA.
The EPA inspector general's office looked into this, and came out
with a report in August of 2003, saying that thousands of people are
endangered by this; that what we have to do is randomly inspect indoor
spaces, apartments and work spaces in concentric circles going out from
the World Trade Center so that we can find out where the contamination
still exists, maybe 3 blocks in one direction, maybe 3 miles in another
direction. But, wherever it is, map it, delineate it, and wherever it
is, go in on a building-by-building basis, clean it up so that people
are not continually poisoned indefinitely.
{time} 2200
Clean it up, so that people are not continually poisoned
indefinitely. What happened to that report? It was ignored by the EPA,
and the people in the Inspector General's Office are no longer there.
And again, at Senator Clinton's insistence and because Carolyn
Maloney and I and others insisted, the EPA set up another scientific
advisory body in 2005. What happened? They started saying, you know,
the Inspector General is right and what the EPA has done is inadequate.
What happened? They were disbanded before they could make official
recommendations.
To this day, we know that we are poisoning large numbers of people
continually and piling up unnecessary cases
[[Page H4747]]
of fatal diseases that will come out in 10 and 15 years because the
Federal Government and the city government of New York has ignored this
problem and covered it up.
So, in summary, we have two separate cover-ups, one of which
unraveled only within the last year. We are trying to deal with it. We
still don't have the funds to deal with it. The Federal Government, the
Bush administration has ignored it, basically. They have not come out
with proper recommendations.
Some of us, Congresswoman Maloney, Congressman Shays, myself, Senator
Clinton, have made legislative proposals for long-term care and
monitoring of the medical conditions caused that will be with us for
the next 50 years. We don't have administration support. We haven't
enacted that legislation. We must.
But at least, because that cover-up unraveled last year, we're
talking about it. But that second cover-up, they're still denying it.
The City of New York is still denying it. The Federal Government is
still denying it. And until they admit it, until we do the proper
investigation in the way that the Inspector General recommended and
look at all the areas and find out where the contamination is and go in
and clean it up, and it may cost a couple of billion dollars to do
that, but until we do that we will continue poisoning people, we will
continue making sure that 10 and 15 and 20 years from now we will have
thousands perhaps of unnecessary cases of fatal diseases.
So I say to you, Mr. Speaker, I thank Ms. Maloney for calling this
special order tonight. But I say to you, we must enact a legislation
such as Carolyn has talked about, such as I have talked about, such as
others have, to put into place systematic means of monitoring and
providing medical services for the victims, the first responders. But
we must also make sure that the EPA and the Federal Government step up
to the plate, unravel that second cover-up, peel it away, see what the
problem is, inspect the areas, find out where the contamination still
is. And where it still is, go in and on a building by building basis
clean it up so that we can know that people can live and work in areas
without being poisoned and without coming down with additional
diseases.
Without doing this, we are adding to the work of the terrorists. The
Federal and city governments are becoming complicit in adding to the
victims. It was bad enough the terrorists cost us 3,000 dead that day.
The Federal and city government should not be adding to the victims as
they still are.
Mrs. MALONEY of New York. I thank the gentleman for his hard work and
for his statement and for being here tonight. I know that he has many
constituents such as Congressman Dent, and we thank Ryan McCormick for
being with us in the Chamber tonight.
I want to talk about another victim of 9/11, Winston Lodge. He was
written about in ``The Making of a Health Disaster'' which was
originally published July 25, 2006; and I quote from the Daily News.
``For Winston Lodge, life as a forgotten victim of 9/11 is the
torment of chronically inflamed and bleeding sinuses.
``5 years ago, Lodge was a 44-year old iron worker who helped build
things. Then, called on to help dismantle the pile, he pitched in at
Ground Zero for 12 hours a day, 7 days a week for a month.
``Today, Lodge's nose runs constantly and often bleeds. He suffers
headaches from sinus pressure, has shortness of breath from chronic
bronchitis, and has acid reflux, a painful heartburn. He has undergone
surgery to relieve sinus difficulties and is waiting for a second
operation.
``Since 2004, Lodge, a divorced father of four, has not been able to
work; and he says, and I quote, ``I am sick to my bones, and I need
help.''
A number of people have worked very hard on this and held hearings to
focus on this issue, including Mrs. Clinton and, very recently, Ed
Towns had one in Brooklyn, New York, about the health impacts on his
constituents in Brooklyn. He held another one here in Washington.
But the first person to call a series of hearings on the health
impacts of 9/11 was my colleague from Connecticut, Christopher Shays.
Under the Government Reform and Oversight Committee, he held hearings
in New York, many here in Washington, that helped focus the light on
the need for everyone to be monitored who was exposed to those deadly
toxins and everyone who is sick to be treated. We thank you for holding
those hearings and for joining us tonight in this special order. Thank
you, Mr. Shays.
Mr. SHAYS. Thank you, Representative Maloney; and it is really a
privilege to be with you and both Jerry Nadler. I know that both of you
have been at the forefront of this issue and clearly have been
championing it, both of you.
But I particularly want to thank Mrs. Maloney. Because you were the
one who, serving on my subcommittee at the time, said we needed to get
at this issue. And you're the reason why we ended up having these
hearings.
During the last 2 years, as chairman of the Subcommittee on National
Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations, we held four
oversight hearings on the federally funded medical monitoring and
registry programs that were established following the September 11
terrorist attacks. And you, obviously, and Mr. Nadler, were major
participants. The witnesses' testimony at the subcommittee clearly
demonstrated the significant health challenges faced by the Ground Zero
responders, as well as the need for their continued health monitoring.
You know, nearly 6 years after the cataclysmic attacks on the World
Trade Centers, shock waves still emanate from Ground Zero. Diverse and
delayed health problems continue to emerge in those exposed to the
contaminants and psychological stressors unleashed on September 11,
2001.
Firefighters, police, emergency medical personnel, transit workers,
construction crews and other first responders, as well as volunteers,
came to Ground Zero knowing there would be risks but confident their
community would sustain them. These individuals did not just go to work
on that day. They went to war.
However, as we know, Federal, State and local health support has not
provided the care and comfort they need and rightfully deserve.
After the 1991 war in the Persian Gulf, veterans suffering a variety
of unfamiliar syndromes faced daunting official resistance to evidence
linking multiple low-level toxic exposure to subsequent chronic ill
health. In part due to our subcommittee, long-term registrants were
improved and an aggressive research agenda was pursued and sick
veterans now have some of the benefits, in law, of presumption that
wartime exposures cause certain illnesses.
When the front line is not Baghdad but now lower Manhattan,
occupational medicine and public health practitioners still have much
to learn from that distant Middle East battlefield. Proper diagnosis,
effective treatment and fair compensation for the delayed casualties of
toxic attacks require vigilance, persistence and a willingness to admit
what we do not yet know and might never know about toxic synergies and
syndromes. Health surveillance has to be focused and sustained and new
treatment approaches have to be tried to restore damaged lives before
it is too late. And I fear it really is becoming almost too late.
Still today, it appears the public health approach to lingering
environmental hazards remains unfocused and halting. The unquestionable
need for long-term monitoring has been met with only short-term
commitments. Screening and monitoring results have not been translated
into timely protocols that could be used by a broader range of treating
physicians. Valuable data sets compiled by competing programs may
atrophy as money and vigilance wane.
Both the executive and legislative branches of our Federal Government
are failing those who were on the front lines nearly 6 years ago. Many
responders, workers, residents and schoolchildren are getting sick from
the toxins that they were exposed to in the area around Ground Zero. We
are not providing those affected with satisfactory treatments and care.
We need to know how many people are sick or how many become sick or
how they may become sick and if they are receiving proper medical care.
We
[[Page H4748]]
also need to talk to the doctors who are treating them to determine if
they are aware of how best to care for these victims.
I just have two more points I want to make. We have spent billions of
dollars improving our method to defend the United States against
another terrorist attack, and we are certainly safer than we were in
2001. But we are still not completely safe. I believe we need to use
oversight hearings to help prepare for a similar attack in another
city, to determine how large an area the government should be
monitoring for health effects, and what some of these of the best
practices are to minimize the impact and treat future victims in these
catastrophic situations.
It is our duty to care for the victims who continue to live with
illnesses caused by the events of that fateful day, to monitor, track
and treat their symptoms and to ensure they have knowledge of and
access to services available to them. Congress and the administration
also have a duty to make sure we as a Nation have learned from their
experiences so we can effectively and expeditiously respond to a
similar horrendous event in the future, and I think that's what both of
you are trying to do and trying to highlight.
My constituents don't live in New York City. But I had a number who
came and spent every day at Ground Zero, and I just know what they're
dealing with. And we know so many others. There are thousands of others
of individuals, and they need our attention.
I thank our colleague, and I hope we have a chance to have a little
bit of a dialogue about this.
Mrs. MALONEY of New York. Well, I thank my colleague and good friend
from Connecticut; and I thank him particularly for the public hearings
that really focused the need and, I think, helped us achieve partial
funding, the $25 million that we got in the President's budget. As we
know, Jerry and the New York delegation, along with Senators Clinton
and Schumer, we have worked very hard to have $50 million added to the
supplemental budget for the health needs of the 9/11 workers. This has
been a delegation-wide priority on both sides of the aisle led by our
two Senators and by the entire delegation.
I remember your hearings very vividly, the men and woman who came and
testified who were sick. They came with their pills. They came with
their coughs. Some could hardly breathe. They could hardly talk.
I want to share another story with my colleagues of Jeffrey Endean,
who was highlighted in the Daily News articles as life as a forgotten
victim of 9/11. And he says, 5 years ago, he was a 51-year old Division
Commander for Morris County New Jersey's Sheriff Office. He was
healthy, able to run several miles.
Then he was pressed into Ground Zero service because he had
experience helping first responders cope at horrific scenes. He worked
12 hours a day, from September 11 to November 22, 2001.
Today, he has reactive airways dysfunction syndrome, RADS, a rare
irritant-induced form of asthma. His sinuses often bleed. He is prone
to headaches and upper respiratory infections.
Married, the father of three and grandfather of three, he retired in
2003; and he says, ``I start the day with four to five inhalers and a
pill. Will I have cancer at 66? Will I live my life as long as I
should?''
That is the question, and that is why Jerry and Chris and I have
worked so hard to have monitoring. And we need to continue this
monitoring treatment not just for the next 5 years but doctors say for
the next 20 or 30 years. New diseases are coming up. Pulmonary
fibrosis, where the fibers in the lungs, they can hardly breathe. It's
like an iron lung.
And, Jerry, you were at those hearings. Can you comment and add to
what Chris said about the hearings? And Jerry and I and Chris really
represent many people who work there, the residents. We need to get the
residents into the registry, too.
Mr. NADLER. Thank you, Carolyn.
What struck me about the hearings was several things. We've had
hearings for a number of years, and I remember the first hearing I
attended was presided over by Senator Lieberman, a U.S. Senate hearing
back in February of 2002. But none of this has changed. It's 5 years
later, and it hasn't changed.
Number one, you see the victims, the first responders, the people who
dropped everything they were doing to help, to help victims that we
thought people might be still alive under the debris. They weren't. Who
then helped with the cleanup to get, who worked on the pile for 40 and
50 days. And we heard story after story of how healthy people were no
longer healthy and they could no longer work and they could no longer
breathe, how they now had to take 20 and 30 and 40 different pills and
medications a day, how they couldn't pay for the medications, how they
had lost their jobs, and because they lost their jobs they lost their
health coverage and how the workers comp system didn't work for them.
{time} 2215
How a hero who was given an award for heroism at the World Trade
Center, when he went for workers' comp, they said, Prove you were
there.
Mrs. MALONEY of New York. Jerry, I have his picture in my office. He
found the flag, the flag that was flown around the world from Ground
Zero, and they will not acknowledge that he worked there. He got
awards. And what struck me about him and many others, Jerry and Chris,
if you will remember, at that hearing they testified they would do it
again even though they know they had lost their health.
Mr. NADLER. So the first thing we saw at those hearings were these
people testifying about how they selflessly worked, and we know that
they did, and how they had been betrayed by every level of government
in treating them, by the workers' comp and the State, by the Federal
Government.
The second thing was it was clear from the heroic work done by the
people at Mount Sinai and the Fire Department of the City of New York,
in trying to deal with these sick people and who had to put the funding
together for private philanthropic sources, that until last year there
was no government funding for any of this whatsoever. Finally we got a
few million dollars.
Mrs. MALONEY of New York. It is a scandal. An absolute scandal. And
at the hearing remember the Health Commissioner testified that Zadroga
did not die from 9/11? I couldn't believe it.
Mr. NADLER. The Health Commissioner testified that. There has been a
denial, a straightforward denial, by City and State people because they
don't want to admit liability.
The third thing was that even now, even now, when Dr. Agwunobi
testified, he said we will have a plan. Well, we haven't seen the plan.
We know now that it is going to cost about $300 million a year just to
deal with the health conditions of the people we know about. Never mind
the cleaning up of the contaminated areas, but just for the first
responders, it is going to cost about $300 million a year. The
President proposed $25 million, but it was made very clear at the
hearing, the last hearing, that the plan that the Federal Government
was going to come up with, if they actually come up with a plan, would
not deal with residents, would not deal with the health problems of
people who are living there, who were beseeched by the City and Federal
Government to come back and live and work in lower Manhattan and are
suffering because they listened to that.
Mrs. MALONEY of New York. Our legislation calls for that all the
residents should be covered. But remember, at the last hearing that
Congressman Towns had, Agwunobi testified that we no longer needed a
plan, that he wasn't going to give us a plan.
They said they would give us a plan in February. Where is it? That is
why we have a resolution calling for a plan on how we are going to
monitor and treat these heroes and heroines.
Mr. NADLER. And that is a scandal also. The other thing that was very
clear, and it has been clear from the EPA right up to date, is that the
registry has dealt with people who live or who work in lower Manhattan,
below Canal Street, as if there was a 30,000-foot high wall along Canal
Street or a Star Trek-type force field along Canal Street and across
the East River because, after all, anyone who lives north of Canal
Street has no problem. And anybody who lives in Brooklyn, where we saw
the satellite photos showed the plume went and where Congressman
[[Page H4749]]
Weiner testified that at his office 10 miles away, debris was falling
on the terrace at his office, and we know it was falling across all
these neighborhoods across Brooklyn; we don't have to deal with that.
We are going to be studiously ignorant of all the people in these other
places outside of lower Manhattan. That was brought out very clearly in
Congressman Towns' hearing. And the fact is, we have to look at all
these hearings areas and do the job properly.
Mr. SHAYS. I would add to that but also make the point that this
won't be the first city that will have to deal with this kind of issue.
I mean, we want to be able to protect and prevent a terrorist attack,
but there may be some other event. And what we also need is a protocol
that makes sure that future first responders are never put in this
condition and that residents around wherever an event takes place are
notified and given good information. The bottom line is, no one was
ever given good information from day one.
Mr. NADLER. That is a very good point.
Mrs. MALONEY of New York. That is very true. But I also want to build
on what he said, that people are going to be watching how we treat
these first responders. God forbid that we have another 9/11 attack or
another terrorist attack, they are going to know that we weren't there
to provide, at the very least, the health care and the monitoring that
the heroes and heroines need, and that is a very important precedent.
It is not only, do we need to take care of these men and women, Mr.
McCormick, who is with us tonight in the Gallery, but we have to send a
message that we are going to be there for our first responders.
Mr. NADLER. There are a couple of lessons that really should be
learned here. One, Abraham Lincoln said, at the end of the Civil War,
that you have to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for
his widow and his orphan. We are failing in doing that, when he who
shall have borne the battle here are heroes who came in to help, and we
are abandoning them.
Second, the EPA had a duty to do the job here. They failed in that
duty. And that is a danger for the future. The law provides that the
EPA must come in and classify the area and make sure and protect
people, and the OSHA laws were enforced in Washington so no one got
sick. They weren't enforced in New York, and 50,000 people are sick.
Mrs. MALONEY of New York. I know. There were lots of terrible
mistakes that are causing people their health now.
And in closing in this final minute, I just want to underscore that
we as a Nation must not forget the firefighters, police officers,
emergency medical technicians and all the other responders, volunteers
and residents who bravely rushed down to save lives even as everyone
else was running in the opposite direction. We must not forget the
rescue, recovery and cleanup workers who stayed on for months at Ground
Zero in service to our country. And we must not forget the residents,
area workers and school children who lived, worked and studied through
the toxins and have now become sick.
Once again, I stand on this floor of Congress and note that this was
an attack against our Nation, and we know that the Nation responded.
Every State has workers that were affected by the deadly toxins at
Ground Zero. Every State had residents who rushed to our State and
rushed down to Ground Zero to help. We will never forget them, and we
will not stop. Both sides of the aisle, we are committed to making sure
that everyone who was exposed to the deadly toxins is treated and
everyone who is sick is going to get medical care. That is the least
that we can do for these brave men and women.
I thank my colleagues and especially Ryan McCormick, who is here with
us tonight, for coming. And I thank you for your work not only tonight
on this Special Order tonight but throughout your year in Congress.
Since 9/11, it has been a priority of yours. And my constituents, the
thousands that were affected thank you for your efforts, and I thank
you for having this opportunity of joining me in this Special Order.
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