MISERY CONTINUES FOR GROUND ZERO WORKERS – $ USED TO FIGHT THEM RATHER THAN HELP THEM

Ground Zero workers are suffering from a panoply of illnesses, ranging from lung disease, cancer and mental illness – caused by their exposures and experiences during the aftermath of the 9-11 disaster.  An insurance fund was set up to pay for these types of illness and injuries, but to date has only paid one claim, according to a story in the Washington Post.  $45,000 was paid to a worker who fell off a ladder. 

The fund has spent $74 million fighting the claims of workers injured at the sight.  This is a real tragedy.  The people who responded to the scene of one of the most sickening disasters in our country’s history are now being treated like they have done something wrong.  They are losing their homes and unable to pay for the medical attention they need.  We are spending millions of dollars fighting them, rather than helping them.  Sick, sick, sick.

 

STAND ‘N SEAL SUITS ALLEGE LUNG DAMAGE

Home Depot and five companies who manufactured “Tile Perfect Stand ‘N Seal Spray-On Grout Sealer” face over 160 lawsuits alleging lung damage from exposure to the product, according to an article at Law.com.  Two have died after inhaling the product and others have been hospitalized. 

The ingredient which created the problem in the product, Flexipel, was manufactured by Innovative Chemical Technologies – a small company based in Georgia.  The MSDS on Flexipel says the product should not be aerosolized.  However, the product was aerosolized in Stand ‘N Seal.  The lawsuit claims that the product was not pulled from Home Depot’s shelves until 19 months after it was evident there was a problem with the product – based on numerous reports of product users being hospitalized.     

 

 

EPA MISTAKES IN AFTERMATH OF 9-11

Continuing the EPA’s parade of incompetence, there is an article in the New York Times regarding Whitman’s testimony on the EPA’s response to the 9-11 clean up.  Whitman repeatedly denied the agency downplayed their findings regarding air quality around the attack site in the days following 9-11.  Whitman might still be in denial, but the proof is in the pudding.  There was ample evidence of dangerous environmental conditions around the site immediately after 9-11, particularly evidence on dangerous levels of dust in the air, including hazardous silica dust and asbestos dust.  Now there is medical proof of the dangers in the worker’s afflicted with World Trade Center dust disease (see previous posts). 

Two quotes from the story:

“She (Whitman) said that she was addressing residents of Lower Manhattan — not workers at ground zero — when she said a week after the attack that the air was safe to breathe”,  and

“(s)everal members of the subcommittee also pressed Ms. Whitman to acknowledge that exposure to the dust from the collapsed twin towers had made workers and residents sick. Ms. Whitman declined to do so, saying that the evidence linking the dust to disease was not conclusive.  She said she had not read clinical reports from the Mount Sinai World Trade Center Screening and Monitoring Program. A preliminary study released last year showed that 70 percent of the first 9,000 workers examined had reported developing some kind of respiratory problem after working on the debris pile.”

She could have come to the hearing and taken responsibility for what she did, but she chose not to.  What a shame.

 

EPA MISTAKES IN KATRINA CLEAN UP

There is an article in the Times Picayune regarding the EPS’s handling of the post Katrina clean up.  The agency is criticized for not monitoring for asbestos fibers during demolition and clean up.  This mistep could lead to thousands of clean up workers coming down with illnesses similar to the diseases experienced by 9-11 workers. 

The agency is also criticized in the report for taking too long to remove hazardous materials from wildlife refuges.  The delay in removal allowed containers of hazardous materials to leak into the refuges, endangering the ecosystems.

In addition, it appears the agency failed to provide guidance to local authorities in storm debris disposal, which resulted in the improper removal to landfills of various storm debris materials and could result in a negative impact to the environment in the long term. 

 

BLACK LUNG TRAGEDY – MEDICAL MONITORING PROGRAM PITFALLS

Only 16% of Kentucky coal miners get screened for black lung disease, an occupational lung disease caused by prolonged breathing of coal mine dust.  As early as 1822 the disease was recognized in coal miners.  It was called miner’s asthma at that time.  Black lung is preventable, just like all occupational diseases. 

The government provides free programs to screen miners for black lung.  But, according to a story in the Appalachian News, miners avoid screenings out of fear of losing their jobs: 

“Miners must share their black-lung diagnosis with their bosses almost immediately if they want to receive state benefits. And if miners are found to have black lung, there’s often no safe place for them to work in a mine. That leaves many worried that their employers would find reasons to let them go.”  

The highest paying jobs are the ones that expose miners to a lot of dust.  Additionally black lung disease has a long latency period, it does not manifest itself until years after the initial exposures occurred.  The disease is also dose related.  If you are taken out of the dusty environment it will slow the progression of the disease.   

In Kentucky, black lung disease death have increased 38 percent from 1998 to 2004, whole the rates have dropped in other coal mining states.  KY miners who were x-rayed last year had several times higher rates of black lung disease than expected.   

This situation needs to change.  Miners should not have to suffer from a preventable disease.  The government needs to change the rules regarding compensation, so that miners are comfortable diagnosing the disease earlier.  The companies that use up these employees, until they are no longer fit for any employment, need to be held accountable for the condition they leave their employees in and the employment laws need to be changed to prevent firings.  Unions might be the answer.

Occupational dust disease is preventable.  The levels which cause disease are known and dust control measures that would prevent disease can be implemented.  Companies have refused to do this for many years.  No reason to believe they will change any time soon.

 

MISSISSIPPI MEDICAL MONITORING SUIT DENIED

Workers at a Boeing facility brought a lawsuit in Federal Court in Mississippi asking for medical monitoring.  The workers claim they were exposed to beryllium dust at the facility.  Exposure to beryllium dust can cause scarring of the lungs that can be fatal.  The claim brought in a suit for medical monitoring is not that the worker has a physical injury, but that the worker has fear of an injury and that is an injury in and of itself. 

Had the case not been denied, the workers would have sought to create a fund to pay for their monitoring in the future.  This is something that, considering the state of the health care system in this country today, is absolutely necessary for the hard working men and women of this country – when they have been exposed at their worksite to a known toxic material.  Score another one for big business.