As the rest of America revisited the events of September 11, the first responders so often lauded as the heroes of that day have in many ways never been able to leave it behind.
The ongoing health repercussions from the toxins that police officers, firemen and EMTs were exposed to are the focal point of a lobbying effort that saw former Daily Show host John Stewart accompany a group of 150 police officers and firefighters to Capitol Hill on September 16 to push Congress for the permanent funding of their healthcare.
The funding is a part of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, which is set to expire in a few weeks. The act is named after a NYPD officer who worked in the rescue and recovery efforts at Ground Zero following the attacks in 2001. He died five years later from a respiratory failure related to the work he performed following the attacks.
The environment of Ground Zero was a smoky mixture of gasses, metals, plastics and pulverized glass that epidemiologists now say is causing a plethora of health issues for the first responders as they attempt to live their lives 14 years later.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, 4,385 instances of cancer have been detected in responders thus far. Asthma, pulmonary disease, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and autoimmune disorders are just a few of the other problems common for first responders who experienced the tragedy first hand. In all, there more than 72,000 people enrolled in the World Trade Center Health Program, the government funded healthcare that arose from the Zadroga Act.
“Do you remember when the government told us that the air was safe to breathe?” Richard Alles, deputy chief of the Uniformed Fire Officers Association, asked the traveling crowd on Sept. 16. “I do too, and now it’s time for Congress to get off its butt and do its job.”
If the act is not extended, 33,000 surviving first responders who are too sick to work will lose their benefits.
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Earlier this month, the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health released a book containing the stories of those who have tried to move on from that day and the months that followed. In the 48 pages of “Stories from 9/11’s Unsung Heroes,” the details of conditions currently covered by the World Trade Center Health Program and how they were acquired are unfolded in a deeply personal way.
Stories like that of NYPD officer Richard Dixon, whose efforts in digging through the rubble of the twin towers led to the inhalation of toxic fumes and dust that have since caused him to suffer from sleep apnea and GERD.
“How many times did they tell us it was safe?” Dixon wrote in his story. “They told us, ‘you can do what you got to do.’ And then all of a sudden they said it was a toxic mess. For most of us when we hear that it’s safe, we’re not going to think twice about it. We’re just going to do our job. It was hot down there and you would take off your mask and then you would get dust in it not realizing what it was. I don’t know how many times I had the mask down not knowing the importance of it. You’d think we’d know this, but we didn’t realize how much damage was done by sucking in that dust. You’d bring those clothes home not realizing what you were bringing home and throw it into the laundry basket contaminating everything else. It was just unknown.”
Dixon’s story is not unusual. Over the past 14 years, he has seen colleagues his age pass away from various cancers and respiratory issues.
“What needs to be heard today is that there are ramifications that are still coming from that day. People say never forget, but they do forget. It doesn’t matter what everyone on the outside thinks, what matters is that the program doesn’t forget and that people who need it are here,” he wrote.
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The current bill is set to expire this October, possibly taking with it the September 11 Victim Compensation Fund that expires in October of 2016. A reauthorization bill has been presented before the Senate, but Congress has yet to vote on it despite bipartisan support.
The responders and Stewart are pushing for the bill to pass now, giving peace of mind to the responders who worry their care may disappear, leaving them with hefty medical bills and an uncertain future.
This isn’t the first time the 9/11 Health and Compensation Act has faced off with Capitol Hill. The initial Zadroga Act wasn’t passed until just before the Christmas holiday in 2010. It appears a similar wait could be in store for the proponents of extending it, and whether that extension will be permanent remains a question mark.
“It’s unacceptable that first responders, survivors and their families have to come down to Washington and lobby Congress to do the right thing,” New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand said in a statement on Sept. 11. “These programs are literally saving lives, and should be permanently extended so we avoid these expiration crises. This is a widely bipartisan bill that should have the support of every member of Congress who has sworn to never forget 9/11.”
The support for the bill is sufficient enough that it likely will pass. Affected individuals live in 429 of the nation’s 435 congressional districts, meaning the number of congressman not at risk of upsetting a segment of their own constituents by voting against it are in the minority. But how long will the wait be for the people who take advantage of the care? No one knows the answer to that, they just hope it’s soon.
“We don’t want to have to come back every five years,” New Jersey State Representative Frank Pallone said in a statement on September 3. “Hopefully, we can see some action in the next few weeks.”
