Workers Comp

We must repay our debt: NY Dem, GOP reps say stories of heroes should inspire passage of 9/11 bill

By Carolyn Maloney, Jerrold Nadler and Peter King

Last month, after years of effort, we finally secured a vote by the full House of Representatives on our legislation, which would provide medical monitoring, treatment and economic compensation for those injured or made sick by the toxic cloud that lingered for weeks following the collapse of the World Trade Center towers.

Emotions ran high during the debate, and we were deeply disappointed that the bill did not achieve the two-thirds majority required for passage under “suspension of the rules,” the parliamentary procedure that was used to bring the bill before the House.

However, the battle to provide help to the heroes, heroines and survivors of Sept. 11 isn’t over – not by a long shot. The 255 votes in favor of the Zadroga Act show that it would have more than enough support to pass the House if it is reconsidered under normal rules, which require only a simple majority, or 218 votes, for passage. That is precisely what we intend to do soon after Congress reconvenes on Sept. 14.

Many of our colleagues who voted “no” last month did so because they objected to the way the bill was funded, but have told us they would otherwise support helping those who were harmed by the toxins at Ground Zero. But others who opposed the bill simply don’t understand the severity of this health crisis – and that it affects Americans from all 50 states.

That is a real shame.

For too many Americans, 9/11 is not simply an historical event but an ongoing nightmare that is slowly robbing them of their health, their strength and, in the worst cases, their lives. We would like to share a few stories about the responders and survivors at the heart of this struggle.

Martin Fullam

A New York City Fire Officer, Lt. Martin Fullam braved the chaos and destruction at Ground Zero to aid in the 9/11 rescue and recovery effort, helping evacuate the towers. In the years following the attacks, however, Fullam began to experience debilitating health problems as a result of his service on 9/11, which forced him to retire from the job he loved. He has polymyocitis, an autoimmune disease that caused him to lose 60 pounds and steadily diminished his lung capacity until he required a double lung transplant, which he received in March 2009.

Long experiencing physical weakness and compromised lung capacity, Fullam has paid a heavy financial, physical and personal toll as a result of his work at Ground Zero.

Recently, when the Senate held its first hearing on the Zadroga Act, such was his commitment to the issue that he traveled to Washington to take part and became even sicker as a result. He has since been confined to a hospital.

The Zadroga Act would provide FDNY heroes like Fullam with federally-funded health care and economic relief.

Margrily Garcia

Margrily Garcia worked near the World Trade Center site. Like many others, she evacuated lower Manhattan covered in toxic dust on 9/11. She returned to work shortly after the attacks, relying on the EPA’s assurances that the air was safe to breathe. We now know, however, that Garcia was inhaling toxins that lingered in the air for weeks after the attacks.

In 2006, after battling breathing problems and fatigue, she was diagnosed with chronic sinus inflammation, asthma and sarcoidosis, a disease that causes scarring of the heart, lungs and other vital organs. Margrily’s heart was so damaged that she had to receive a pacemaker. Since she became ill, her diseases have been mentally and physically exhausting, requiring constant doctor visits and treatment.

Garcia says that “it’s a constant battle to remain alive, but I’m very grateful to still be here fighting with the support of the elite doctors and staff in the survivors program at the WTC Environmental Health Center. I cannot imagine how things would be without them.”

The Zadroga Act would make permanent the health care program for survivors like Garcia and expand its funding.

Alex Sanchez and Manuel Checo

After 9/11, hundreds of buildings in lower Manhattan were coated inside and out with toxic dust. Though they played a less visible role in the recovery effort than firefighters and rescue workers, Alex Sanchez and Manuel Checo, proud U.S. citizens both, were among the thousands of workers who cleaned the buildings of lower Manhattan and helped get our city back on its feet.

They often did this work with nothing more than a pail and mop – with no protective gear other than flimsy paper masks.

After working together in toxic conditions for months, the two developed a wide range of illnesses, including asthma, lung nodules and chronic post-traumatic stress disorder. Both men were unable to return to their jobs due to their debilitating health problems. Lost wages and poor health have had a devastating impact on their lives, and Checo has had to sell valued possessions for income.

Today, the two men are barely managing to survive on workers’ compensation. But even when their health is at its worst, Sanchez and Checo, along with Sanchez’s son Jack, can always be counted on to show their support for the Zadroga Act, which would give both men guaranteed health care and reopen the federal Victim Compensation Fund. That would make a huge difference in their lives.

Frank Fraone

Frank Fraone, division chief of the Menlo Park Fire Department in California, was thousands of miles away from New York City on 9/11, fighting wildfires. Along with thousands of other brave men and women from around the country, Chief Fraone traveled to New York to aid local rescue workers at Ground Zero. Fraone had seen his fair share of destruction during his career, but nothing prepared him for what he saw here.

He worked 16-hour days with fellow rescue workers, inhaling toxic dust that later left him with lower respiratory airway disease. Now living across the country from New York City, he still feels the effects of working at Ground Zero, which he says limited his ability to respond to other disasters, including Hurricane Katrina.

Fraone has had difficulty getting health care in California for his ailments and says that “living out here in California, I cannot get confirmation or talk face-to-face with anyone affiliated with [9/11] health care issues. I do not know to this date if I am going to be covered for my health concerns. What happens when this health issue disables me and I can no longer work or care for my family?”

The Zadroga Act would fully fund programs to provide health care to 9/11 responders and survivors who live outside the New York metropolitan area and give them access to economic compensation.

Joseph Picurro

At a time when most people were running away from lower Manhattan, Joseph Picurro rushed to the World Trade Center site to volunteer his expertise as an ironworker for the rescue effort.

For 28 days, he helped cut steel beams on the Pile to find survivors and clear debris, often sleeping on the floor of a nearby office building rather than returning to his home in New Jersey at night.

In the years after, Picurro was diagnosed with sarcoidosis, which makes breathing painful, as well as with reactive airway dysfunction syndrome and severe acid reflux. He suffers from constant joint pain, seizures and blackouts and relies on dozens of different medications. He is currently in hospice care and has had to fight to get workers’ compensation for his illnesses.

“Our financial situation is bad – I mean bad. For 6 years I’ve had to beg for help, borrow from family and I just can’t do it anymore and shouldn’t have to. We need to reopen the Victim Compensation Fund. My husband did serve his country and now it’s time for the country to serve him, before he dies,” says Picurro’s wife, Laura.

Leon Heyward

Following the attacks, Leon Heyward was directed by his supervisor at the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs to pick up coworkers at Ground Zero and drop them off at their homes. By doing his job and helping others, Heyward was enveloped by the toxic dust that engulfed lower Manhattan. One year later, he was diagnosed with sarcoidosis of the brain, lungs and eyes, which required frequent hospital visits. By 2003, seizures sustained at work due to his sarcoidosis forced Heyward to stop working. After leaving the workforce, Heyward was initially denied workers’ compensation and he had to ask his friends and family for help paying his health care and living expenses.

While he eventually won some Social Security disability benefits, the toll on his finances and health was irreversible.

Heyward died in October 2008 from lymphoma-complicating sarcoidosis after fighting for seven years to get proper care and workers’ compensation and to have doctors and the government recognize that his illness was caused by 9/11.

Stories like these – and hundreds of people whose names may never be publicized – are why we will never stop fighting to provide proper medical care and economic relief for those who were harmed by the attacks on the United States.

We have a moral responsibility to help those who came to the aid of our nation in one of America’s darkest hours. Nine long years after the attacks, the living victims of 9/11 are still suffering. We must pass this bill. It is the least we can do as a grateful nation.

Maloney (D-Manhattan, Queens), is chair of the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee. Nadler (D-Manhattan, Brooklyn), is chair of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. King (R-Long Island), is the ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee.

Assembly Report Reveals Spike in Violence Against Staff in NYS’s Juvenile Justice Facilities

As reported in today’s Times Union, Assembly Member Rory Lancman (D-Queens), Chair of the Subcommittee on Workplace Safety, released a report revealing a 42% increase in assaults on staff at the state Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS), which runs the state’s forty-seven juvenile justice facilities, based on Workers’ Compensation claims filed between 2008 and 2010.

The report further found that OCFS delayed implementing a workplace violence prevention program mandated by New York State law; that “facility specific” risk assessment and staff safety training also required by law has yet to be completed; that support programs for assaulted employees are lacking at OCFS facilities; and that one-third of juveniles initially placed at less secure, community-based non-profit facilities end up being relocated to more secure facilities.

Based on these findings, the report makes the following recommendations:

1. OCFS must immediately complete “facility specific” workplace violence risk assessments, and provide safety training at each facility based on the results of such assessments;

2. Existing management-employee workplace safety committees at each OCFS facility should better integrate workplace violence prevention into their agendas;

3. OCFS should develop support programs for employees who become victims of workplace violence;

4. The courts and OCFS need to make better assessments of juvenile delinquents in determining which level of secured facility they should be placed in.

“If OCFS is truly committed to create a functioning, safe and rehabilitating environment for residents, then administrators should take the recommendations of this report seriously and make a sustained commitment to improving the safety of its employees,” said Assemblyman Lancman.

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Jane Carey, Chief of Staff
Office of Assemblyman Rory Lancman
159-16 Union Turnpike, Suite 210
Hillcrest, New York 11366
718-820-0241 (District); 518-455-5172 (Albany); 718-820-0414 (Fax)

City appeals judge’s stay of $657M deal for ill 9/11 workers

By Ari Paul

Lawyers for the city are appealing U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein’s stay of a settlement between the city and more than 10,000 response workers suffering 9/11-related illness on grounds that the Judge overstepped his authority.

It also asked Judge Hellerstein to stall all proceedings in the litigation in order for the appeal to go forward.

Last month, Judge Hellerstein rejected the $657-million mass tort settlement because after lawyers’ fees of 33 percent were deducted the average pay-out per claimant—roughly $40,000 —would be too small a sum given the severity of the illness involved. Judge Hellerstein was unmoved during a hearing April 12 when lawyers asked him to lift the stay.

City: Judge Blocking Fair Deal

“In this case, the parties have tried to address concerns that were raised but the Judge’s statements and actions, together with his refusal to even consider other viewpoints, have made it necessary to appeal his rulings so that the plaintiffs and defendants can proceed with a settlement they consider fair and reasonable,” Corporation Counsel Michael A. Cardozo said in a statement. “Without this, we will not be able to obtain a settlement that provides compensation, certainty and closure to the parties after years of litigation.”

Legal experts have noted that while Judges have the power to reject settlements in class-action suits, Judge Hellerstein was entering untested territory in stepping into a mass-tort settlement (while the more-than 10,000 cases are grouped together, they do not constitute a “class” in the legal sense).

James E. Tyrrell, Jr., one of the main lawyers for the city and its contractors, said in statement, “While we respect the Judge’s views, his orders are impeding the progress we have made and are destroying the ability to provide compensation now to deserving plaintiffs through a settlement process. We also believe this settlement provides a pathway to obtain additional compensation from other parties who have not joined the settlement.”

In an interview with the New York Times, lead plaintiff attorney Marc Jay Bern did not indicate whether he would also file an appeal, saying, “As far as we’re concerned, the settlement still exists, and ultimately this is for our individual clients to accept or reject on their own behalf.”

PEF renews call for metal detectors after officer is shot

Albany – A member of the New York State Public Employees Federation (PEF) who works for the state Division of Parole was shot as he sat at his desk in his downtown Brooklyn office Thursday night. Parole Officer Samuel Salters suffered a gunshot wound to his shoulder and remains in stable condition at Bellevue Hospital Center. Salters was shot by a paroled murderer who eye witnesses said sat in the waiting room of the parole office until his name was called, then calmly approached Officer Salters and shot him.

The incident has renewed calls for metal detectors in parole offices, something PEF has been trying to negotiate with the state Divison of Parole (DOP) for several years.

“The DOP agreed to a pilot program in 2009 that would install two metal detectors in offices in New York City,” said PEF President Kenneth Brynien. “That program has been stalled due to disagreement over how to staff the detectors. Our parole officers are being forced to choose between protecting their own safety and that of the public. Our officers are trying to deal with caseloads that have become unmanageably high. Pulling
officers off caseloads to staff metal detectors puts public safety at risk.”

“This comes down to appropriate staffing levels,” said parole officer and PEF Council Leader Manuelita Clemente. “We recognize there is a hiring freeze due to the state’s fiscal crisis, but we are talking about life and death and the safety of our officers, visitors and parolees. The only deterrent at this time is a piece of paper on the wall that lists banned items including weapons,” Clemente said.

In March 2009, another parolee brought a weapon into a parole office in Queens. That parolee was shot to death at the Queens DOP office after grabbing a parole officer and holding a knife to her throat.

“This latest incident should serve as a warning, the state can no longer hide behind the budget deficit as an excuse not to staff metal detectors in the state’s parole offices,” Brynien added.

PEF is the state’s second-largest state-employee union, representing 58,000 professional, scientific and technical employees, including more than 900 parole officers.

9/11 heroes likely to suffer ‘World Trade Center Cough’ for life: study

BY Helen Kennedy
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Wednesday, April 7th 2010

The so-called “World Trade Center Cough” appears to be permanent.

A sweeping new study of firefighters and EMTs workers who inhaled toxic Ground Zero dust found that their lungs have unexpectedly failed to recover since the 2001 disaster.

“We demonstrated dramatic decline in lung function, mostly in the first six months after 9/11, and these declines persisted with little or no meaningful recovery over the next six-and-a-half years,” said Dr. David Prezant, a professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx.

The study will appear Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine. Lung problems from smoke inhalation in firefighters is usually temporary, and the study authors expected the damage they observed right after 9/11 to slowly disappear.

“Honestly, I thought we would see some recovery,” said lead author Dr. Thomas Aldrich, a pulmonologist at Montefiore Medical Center.

“I thought we’d see a slow return to the normal baseline in the absence of continuing exposure. But that generally did not happen. It’s discouraging.”

The study evaluated 92% of the 13,954 firefighters and EMS workers who were at the site between September 11 and September 24, 2001, testing their lung capacity every 12 to 18 months.

It found that 13% of firefighters and 22% of EMS workers still had impaired lung function seven years down the road.

The worst effected were those who arrived at the Trade Center on the morning of 9/11.

The cloud over Ground Zero – the vaporized remains of two 110-story towers – is estimated to have contained between one and two million tons of toxic dust, including asbestos, glass, cement and lead.

It was too thick to see through. “Perhaps there was something different about the dust itself, but more than likely it was the sheer volume,” Aldrich said.

“Breathing that stuff is clearly likely to be pretty damaging.”

Those who are still suffering hailed the report. “For eight years, we’ve been crying that we were sick and dying.

We are vindicated by the New England Journal of Medicine,” said John Feal, a construction worker who worked on “the pile” and later became a fierce advocate for 9/11 health care issues.

He noted that while the study looked at only firefighters and EMTs, there were 40,000 people breathing bad air at the site when police officers, construction workers and other volunteers are counted.

“This is more proof that we need long term health care solutions for 9/11 responders,” Feal said. “Here we are, eight-and-a-half years later. We’re in bad shape. Many of us have died,” said ex-firefighter Kenny Specht, who quit Ladder 289 in Queens with severe gastrointestinal problems followed by thyroid cancer.

“I hope they see this study and see that we’re not crying wolf and there is indeed a need for longer medical monitoring,” Specht said. Forty-one of the WTC firefighters had died before the lung study ended in 2008.

The James Zadroga bill, which would provide more than $10 billion for health care for those who affected by the dust cloud, is winding its way through the House, with the next committee vote set for April 12.

“This study is another sad confirmation of what we have known for a long time: Ground Zero toxins made responders sick and many are not getting any better. The good news is we are finally moving a permanent program to fund health care for responders and residents exposed and injured by these toxins,” said Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-Queens), a sponsor of the bill.

Last month, a federal judge stunned legal observers when he rejected a proposed settlement to nearly 10,000 lawsuits that would have given 911 responders $575 million. Judge Alvin Hellerstein said it wasn’t enough, when legal fees and complex payout formulas were considered.

A new hearing is set for Monday.

Sound judgment: 9/11 responders are lucky to have Judge Alvin Hellerstein

Finally, after almost nine long, painful, shameful years, someone has stood up for the rights and the well-being of the Forgotten Victims of 9/11.

Manhattan Federal Judge Alvin Hellerstein courageously served justice by refusing to sanction the wholly inadequate settlement offered to 10,000 people who have claimed they were sickened at Ground Zero.

His decision was also a stunning rebuke to the attorneys who asked their clients to accept far less than they deserved while gouging them for outrageous legal fees.

Only last week, lead lawyer Marc Bern went ballistic at the mere suggestion that Hellerstein could trim his bonanza. Now, fury will likely target all the lawyers – from clients burning with a sense that their attorneys made a shambles of this mass litigation and tried to take an anticipated $200 million and run.

After listening to a number of sick rescue and recovery workers, Hellerstein nailed three points:

First, that the $657 million offered to the claimants if they unanimously accepted the deal, and the $575 million they would split if 95% bit, fell far short of fairness.

Second, that lawyers grossly overreached by demanding one-third of all recoveries, plus costs.

Third, that the settlement proposal was a convoluted mishmash that gave claimants absolutely no way to figure out how much money any one individual stood to receive.

“I will not preside over a settlement that is based on fear or ignorance,” Hellerstein said.

One good measure of how lacking the proposed settlement was is the certainty that City Hall would have leaped at the deal had the plaintiffs’ lawyers offered it, oh, three years ago.

Another good measure is that the average payout would have been in the $40,000-to-$60,000 range – a piddling amount compared with the average injury award paid by the 9/11 victims’ compensation fund before it closed: $392,000.

The long-term solution is that Congress must reopen the fund under legislation that is inching through the House. In the short term, Hellerstein must remain the fair guardian of the interests of thousands of people who now have grounds to question whose side their attorneys are on.

As a first step, as we have urged, the judge should require Bern and partners Paul Napoli and David Worby to provide a full public reckoning as to the merits of those 10,000 cases. No one knows how many are legitimate and how many specious.

Hellerstein should insist that, after five years of litigation, the time has come for the lawyers to stop waging the fight based on the quantity of cases rather than on their quality.

Yesterday, he told them to start getting real. They have much further to go.

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Hurdles Still Remain for Ground Zero Settlement

by Mireya Navarro

Sgt. Dawn Sorrento says she looks on the years since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks as a blur of doctor’s visits, ambushes by illnesses she had never heard of and growing resentment toward the city that challenged her injury claims.

Yet on Friday, Sergeant Sorrento, a police officer who is among some 10,000 rescue and cleanup workers at ground zero who sued the city for health damages, felt a grim sort of satisfaction. She had expected her case to be among the first to go to trial this spring; instead, both sides announced a legal settlement of up to $657.5 million Thursday night.

“It’s nice that someone took responsibility, finally,” said Sergeant Sorrento, 43, who helped coordinate the movement of cranes, dignitaries and cadaver-hunting dogs in and out of ground zero in September 2001. “The city finally acknowledges that 9/11 diseases do exist and that people are suffering.”

Officials cast the settlement as righting a historic wrong on Friday and predicted that it would assure speedy and just compensation to the workers, who have waited more than six years for a legal resolution. But significant hurdles remain.

Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein, of the United States District Court in Manhattan, has made clear that he intends to play a role in assuring that individuals are compensated fairly.

At a hearing on Friday, Judge Hellerstein said he would take a week to review the terms of the agreement and convene again next Friday to give his “initial impressions” and to hear from interested parties, including plaintiffs.

He also scheduled a formal “fairness hearing” on the agreement for April 12.

Lawyers from both sides have said that the settlement does not require the judge’s approval. But Judge Hellerstein warned them in January that in the event of a settlement, he would hold hearings to determine whether the settlement treated individual 9/11 workers fairly.

On Friday he also cautioned them that he planned to review the fees going to the plaintiffs’ lawyers and would reserve the right to reduce them as he has done in some other cases, to as low as 15 percent.

This means the lawyers, who stood to collect a third of the settlement under agreements with their clients, could see their anticipated rewards more than halved.

Initial reactions among the thousands of 9/11 workers have so far been mixed, and some will not venture an opinion until they learn more details. A fuller picture of the range of sentiments is likely to surface when plaintiffs turn out to address Judge Hellerstein at the hearing next week.

Still, lawyers for the plaintiffs said they were confident that the 95 percent consent threshold the agreement requires would be met and emphasized that most of the clients they had heard from were expressing relief.

“We’ve had numerous calls and by far the calls are very, very positive,” said Marc Jay Bern of Napoli Bern Ripka, the law firm representing more than 9,400 of the plaintiffs. “The clients are quite relieved that there’s an end in sight.”

But John Feal, an advocate for 9/11 workers through his FealGood Foundation, said he had been inundated with e-mail and phone calls from angry plaintiffs fretting about their potential individual compensation as word of the settlement spread Thursday night.

“A lot of people still want to see all the facts before signing on,” he said.

In a telephone conference with reporters Friday morning, the city’s corporation counsel, Michael A. Cardozo, said city officials were “delighted” that the legal battle that pitted the “heroes” of the recovery effort against the city could soon be over.

“We believe strongly that this settlement is fair not only to the city and its contractors but to the plaintiffs,” he said.

On the same call, Kenneth R. Feinberg, the former special master of the federal compensation fund that paid awards to families of 9/11 victims in a system similar to what the settlement for the workers now calls for, called the settlement “long overdue.”

He noted that the only reason many of the workers had not been compensated under the Sept. 11 Victim Compensation Fund was because they had not fallen ill by the time the fund closed in 2003.

Christine LaSala, chief of the WTC Captive Insurance Company, the city insurer that will pay the settlement out of a federally-financed $1.1 billion fund, said a tort management firm has already been chosen to handle the claims. The administrator responsible for evaluating the cases and deciding the awards will be appointed within a few weeks, she added.

Ms. LaSala said that once the settlement is final, the first claimants will start receiving payouts within months and the entire process could be completed within a year. Each plaintiff must submit proof of medical history and presence at ground zero to guard against fraud.

Under the point system envisioned to determine severity of illness, a serious condition such as pulmonary fibrosis or scarring of the lung could result in an award of more than $1 million, according to Mr. Bern, the plaintiffs’ lawyer.

Many plaintiffs have said they are not only hobbled by illness but also haunted by the idea that they could become 9/11 casualties themselves.

“I’m sick that I even participated” in the recovery effort at ground zero, said Kenny Specht, 41, a firefighter who received a diagnosis of thyroid cancer in 2008. “It was a dangerous thing to do, but I thought it was the place to be.”

Sergeant Sorrento, who is single and lives on Staten Island, said she counts herself among the lucky ones even as she struggles with “reactive airway disease,” a condition similar to asthma involving a tendency to wheeze and cough from exposure to irritants.

Now a detective in Coney Island, she can still work full time. But when her symptoms worsen in severe heat or the winter cold, she said, her detectives have to pick up the slack.

“What happens 10 years from now?” she said.

Ground Zero Workers Reach Deal Over Health Claims

By MIREYA NAVARRO

Pool photo by Stan Honda
Firefighters worked at the ruins of the World Trade Center in New York in Oct. 2001.

A settlement of up to $657.5 million has been reached in the cases of thousands of rescue and cleanup workers at ground zero who sued the city over damage to their health, according to city officials and lawyers for the plaintiffs.

They said that the settlement would compensate about 10,000 plaintiffs according to the severity of their illnesses and the level of their exposure to contaminants at the World Trade Center site.

Lawyers from both sides met on Thursday to discuss the terms of the settlement with Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Payouts to the plaintiffs would come out of a federally financed insurance company with funds of about $1.1 billion that insures the city. At least 95 percent of the plaintiffs must accept its terms for it to take effect. If 100 percent of the plaintiffs agree to the terms, the total settlement would be $657.5 million. But if only the required 95 percent agreed, the total would shrink to $575 million.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs estimated that individual settlement amounts would vary from thousands of dollars to more than $1 million for the most serious injuries.

The settlement, which took two years to negotiate, raises the prospect of an end to years of complex and politically charged litigation that has pitted angry victims against city officials, who questioned the validity of some claims and argued that the city should be immune from liability.

“This is a good settlement,” said Marc Bern, a lawyer with a firm that represents more than 9,000 plaintiffs, “and we are gratified that these heroic men and women who performed their duties without consideration of the health implications will finally receive just compensation for their pain and suffering, lost wages, medical and other expenses, as the U.S. Congress intended when it appropriated this money.”

In a statement, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg called the settlement “a fair and reasonable resolution to a complex set of circumstances.”

Under the settlement, a claims administrator, who will be chosen by the lawyers in the case, would decide whether a given plaintiff had a valid claim, whether the plaintiff qualified for compensation and if so, for how much. The system is similar to the one used for payouts from the Sept. 11 Victim Compensation Fund to families of those killed in the terrorist attacks. The process is meant to screen out fraudulent claims.

Since 2003, thousands of firefighters, police officers, construction workers and emergency responders have filed lawsuits against 90 defendants — including the city and the private companies it hired to remove debris at ground zero — over illnesses they say developed after they spent days, weeks or months working at the World Trade Center site after the attacks.

The plaintiffs claimed that their conditions — most commonly asthma and other respiratory illnesses — resulted from the toxic brew of contaminants at ground zero and the defendants’ failure to adequately supervise and protect them with safety equipment, like respirators. Among the first cases chosen for trial was that of a firefighter, Raymond W. Hauber, 47, who died of esophageal cancer in 2007 before his case could be heard.

Some of the cases that fall under the settlement involve plaintiffs who are not ill now, but fear they will develop illnesses like cancer that can take years to manifest themselves. The settlement provides for a $23.4 million insurance policy to cover future claims by such plaintiffs.

The first 12 cases were scheduled to come to trial on May 16 in Manhattan, and those trials will now not take place. But under the settlement, plaintiffs have 90 days to opt out of the settlement and pursue trials.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs would collect a third of the settlement amounts in legal fees. The insurance company, known as W.T.C. Captive Insurance and financed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, has already paid out more than $200 million in legal fees to defend the city and its contractors and in administrative costs.

To determine individual settlement amounts, the administrator will use a point system to determine the severity of a plaintiff’s illness, as documented by medical history. Other factors that will be considered include evidence of a link to ground zero and adjustments for age, pre-existing conditions, time of diagnosis and smoking history. The process could take up to a year.

Mindful of the intense public interest in the cases, Judge Hellerstein has told lawyers on both sides that he planned to review each settlement and hold “fairness” hearings to determine whether the settlements were reasonable, which legal experts said was unusual for litigation not involving a class action.

“Many of them are similar, but in fundamental aspects they have an individual plaintiff — they all revolve around one person,” Judge Hellerstein told the lawyers at a Jan. 21 hearing. “I’ll be looking carefully, if there is a settlement, at how individual members are treated.”

The city argued that it was immune from damages in cases involving a national emergency or a civil defense disaster. It also questioned the connection between the illnesses and ground zero and cast doubt on many of the claims, for example, arguing in the case of a ConEd mechanic, which was also to be among the first trials, that the man’s lung problems predated 9/11.

“If this settlement allows me to move on in my life, if it allows me to protect my family’s future, I guess I don’t have anything else to fight about,” said one plaintiff, Kenny Specht, 41, a retired firefighter.

But Mr. Specht, who has thyroid cancer and founded a group to help fellow firefighters financially, said the outcome was hardly a victory.

“Why did families who had to bury somebody have to wait this long?” he said. “Why didn’t they handle this in a timely manner?”

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RALLY SUPPORTS HEALTH CARE FOR SEPTEMBER 11TH WORKERS

Labor leaders and elected officials gathered near the World Trade Center site today to call on Congress to pass the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act.

The comprehensive legislation would cover medical monitoring and treatment for tens of thousands of first responders and residents who were exposed to toxins at the site and are not currently receiving help from the government.

“We have a moral obligation to provide health care to the thousands of first responders, area resident, school children and others, thousands of whom came here from across the country to help us,” said President Jack Ahern of the New York City Central Labor Council.

“We need long term treatment and this legislation does just that. It provides long term treatment for the men and woman who very much gave to New York City their heart and soul,” said first responder Alex Sanchez.

The bill is named after former Detective James Zadroga, who was a rescue worker after the attacks. Controversy ensued after city medical officials said his death wasn’t related to the September 11th terrorist attacks.

Multiple Myeloma in World Trade Center Responders: Mt Sinai School of Medicine August 10, 2009

Emergency personnel that responded to the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers may be at higher risk for multiple myeloma, a form of blood cancer. The findings, which were published, early August, in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, are still very preliminary, but suggest that airborne toxins may have damaged the rescue workers’ lungs.

Since 2006, BALCONY has made the monitoring of rescue workers at the World Trade Center a top policy priority , joining the larger coalition advocating for treatment and extended benefits,” stated Lou Gordon, Director of BALCONY. “ In fact, we produced several TV and Radio PSA’s featuring actress Sigourney Weaver and former boxing champ, the late, Jose Torres, alerting those involved in cleanup , rescue and recovery to register and to be regularly screened so as to qualify for New York State workers’ compensation benefits should they become ill.”

Multiple myeloma normally affects the elderly, but was shown to develop early in the emergency personnel, who were all under 45 years old.

Rescue workers were heavily exposed to a toxic chemical soup released from the fires that raged at the World Trade Center site for three months after 9/11. The chemicals included several known carcinogens, some of which have been linked to a heightened risk of multiple myeloma.

“ This is very preliminary,” cautioned Dr. Mitchell Smith, director of the Lymphoma Service at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia. “It could turn out to be a statistical fluke and means nothing or it could be the tip of the iceberg and we’ll see an increase in the next 10 years,” he said.

“The concerning thing,” he added, “is it makes biological sense. There is certain data that multiple myeloma is associated with an increased exposure to certain chemicals. It has never been shown with inhaled chemicals but this amount of exposure probably did get into the blood.” Smith was not involved in the study.

“Practitioners should be on the lookout for unusual disease patterns,” added Dr. Jacqueline Moline, lead author of the report, which appears in the August issue of the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. “Multiple myeloma is usually a disease that occurs in the seventh or eighth decade of life. A person is 10 times more likely to get myeloma when they’re 70 than when they’re 45 or 48. Clinicians should be sensitized to patients coming in with unusual symptoms. They should think broadly.”

Source: health.usnews.com

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