Generator Issue #6
Rally at Ground Zero Aims to Build Support for 9/11 Health Care Legislation

Several hundred union workers and elected officials, including Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, rallied near ground zero in support of federal legislation that would provide long-term monitoring and treatment for people exposed to toxic dust and debris in Lower Manhattan during the 9/11 cleanup.

The rally was timed to coincide with the upcoming sixth anniversary of the attacks, when three members of New York's congressional delegation will introduce the bipartisan 9/11 Health and Compensation Act. Democrats Carolyn Maloney and Jerrold Nadler, along with Republican Vito Fossella, will present the bill to Congress on Tuesday.

“The fact that men and women are ill and not being helped here is a national disgrace,” Representative Carolyn B. Maloney said. “We are the wealthiest nation on earth; the least we can do is provide health care for the men and women who were there on 9/11. They were here for us. We need to be here for them.”

Members of New York’s Congressional delegation had been calling on the federal government to assume more of the financial burden of ground zero-related health problems.

Representative Vito Fossella, Republican of New York, said the federal government had been reluctant to provide a steady flow of money. That reluctance seemed to be waning, he said, as more scientific evidence about the illnesses emerged. “I think it’s gone from anecdotal individual stories of a diminished quality of life,” he said, “to stories of respiratory and pulmonary problems to hard and fast sets of data that point to the fact that there truly is a problem.”

The legislation, which will be introduced in the House on Tuesday would require the federal government to collect data to better understand the extent of ground zero-related illnesses. It also would provide compensation to anyone exposed to asbestos and other contaminated dust, including rescue workers, office workers, students and even tourists who were in Lower Manhattan on Sept. 11.

Mrs. Clinton, took time away from her presidential campaign to attend the rally. "From the first moment that I came to Ground Zero on the day of the evil attacks . . . I knew we were going to have problems," Clinton told more than 1,000 uniformed workers, union activists and Ground Zero laborers, "that people were going to get sick and people were going to die from what they were exposed to.

"We're going to rescue the rescuers," she promised. "And it will be my highest priority whether I am your senator or your president. I will stay with this until you get the health care, the treatment and the compensation that you deserve to have."

Mr. Nadler said this in response to the problems of people who became sick in the aftermath of 9/11. “Government officials at all levels took perilous shortcuts on workers’ safety,” he said. “Many of you toiled for months on that toxic pile at ground zero without proper protection. You were unnecessarily exposed to hazardous toxins because of what the government officials said and did.”

Dr. Robin Herbert, the director of the World Trade Center monitoring and treatment program based at Mount Sinai Medical Center, said about 4 in 10 of its patients have had breathing problems like asthma, and many suffer mental health problems like post-traumatic stress disorder.

CWA District One Vice President Chris Shelton reminded the workers how George Bush "stood on the pile of rubble and promised the workers would never be forgotten, but George Bush has forgotten" he said, "and maybe soon Bush will be forgotten."

CWA Local 1101 member Liam McClaughlin, talked about how he has become ill and been out of work for more than 8 months. He was replacing and repairing the telecommunication lines at Ground Zero after the attack and his manager said he didn't need a face mask when he requested one. When he informed his manager there was cancer in his family history the manager replied "don't worry, it skips a generation."

The rally also featured Carole King, who led the crowd in singing “You’ve Got a Friend.” Union leaders held the rally yesterday in lieu of the annual Labor Day parade.

The new legislation takes elements from several bills that have failed to get through Congress. The City Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn, said she would make the legislation “the top priority” when she and other members of the Council visit Washington this month.