Chief Leader – June 16, 2015
by SARAH DORSEY and RICHARD STEIER
Members of the House Subcommittee considering a bill to extend the Zadroga Act June 11 showed bipartisan support for making the legislation permanent, as two ill NYPD retirees gave stirring pleas to continue funding its lifesaving benefits.
The Health Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee heard from World Trade Center Health Program Administrator Dr. John Howard, who fielded numerous queries about the outcome if the 2011 Act—which established free medical care and economic compensation for Sept. 11 victims—were allowed to expire.
Some Shut Out
He spoke of the wealth of knowledge that doctors focusing on Sept. 11 illnesses have developed, their ability to coordinate the treatments for patients with several complicated diseases, and the stress that patients with severe PTSD are put under when they know that their care could be taken away someday. He observed that many who toiled at the Trade Center site would be ineligible for Workers’ Compensation because the statute of limitations for their work-related illnesses has passed.
His measured response contrasted with that of retired NYPD Police Officer David Howley, who has beaten back cancer related to his service after the terrorist attacks.
“Dr. Howard was wonderful in his answers, but I think I’m gonna be a little more blunt about it,” Mr. Howley told the committee. “To end this program, people are going to die.”
“It’s a fact,” he later added. “It’s unquestionable, and that’s what’s going to happen.” He referred to the rare and complicated cancers that survivors and first-responders have contracted—thought by researchers to result from the unusually-potent mix of strong toxins released by the destruction on 9/11. “You can’t go to your regular doctor; they just don’t have the knowledge,” he said. “They just don’t.”
A Series of Ailments
Barbara Burnette, a retired NYPD Detective, has so far avoided cancer, but described a litany of debilitating respiratory and systemic diseases that have plagued her since she spent weeks at The Pile.
Diagnosed with a series of devastating ailments, including interstitial lung disease, hypersensitivity pneumonitis and fibrosis, she has gone from traveling the world as a player on the championship NYPD women’s basketball team to wheezing when she merely walks up stairs. Her lungs badly scarred, she has been told she will one day require a double lung transplant. Long-term steroid use led to weight gain, and she developed diabetes and partially-detached retinas in both eyes.
Ms. Burnette also developed both rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis, both of which were shown in a recent study co-authored by the FDNY’s Chief Medical Officer, David Prezant, to be linked to exposure to 9/11 toxins. Just days before her testimony, the WTC Health Program denied benefits for those and other autoimmune conditions, saying there wasn’t yet strong enough scientific evidence that they’re triggered by 9/11 dust. But Dr. Howard acknowledged that another study testing that connection is underway, saying that he would monitor its results.
‘Program Saves Lives’
Ms. Burnette said her benefits through the health program allow her family to afford the many doctor’s visits she needs, and stressed the importance of having doctors that are knowledgeable about Sept. 11 illness and able to coordinate her treatments.
“This program saves lives. It is saving my life,” she said.
The Zadroga Act renewal bill would make permanent the law’s benefits, much like previous legislation that protected miners stricken with black lung or uranium workers who developed cancer.
Experts believe that up to 400,000 Americans were exposed to the toxic dust unleashed on Sept. 11, and almost 21,000 received treatment last year through the WTC Health Program. Since most forms of cancer were accepted as 9/11-related by the program beginning in 2012, 4,265 cases have been certified, according to Dr. Howard. In addition to the $1.5 billion set aside for the health program, the law also reopened the Victim Compensation Fund, allocating $2.77 billion to cover lost wages, out-of-pocket medical payments, and other costs.
First Time a Struggle
The first Zadroga Act was fought bitterly by fiscal conservatives in Congress who feared its costs were too high; it was passed in the final hours of the 2010 legislative session only after its budget and its time limit were slashed.
Advocates hope that this fight will be easier, in part because stripping away benefits from suffering beneficiaries could be a more-difficult task politically.
Committee members from fiscally-conservative bastions like Texas and Kentucky seemed sympathetic during the hearing, and Congressmen from the New York and New Jersey area championed the cause.
“It’s absolutely essential to move forward [on this],” Republican Rep. Peter King said of the bill, while Democratic Rep. Jerrold Nadler said that history had proved the bill essential.
The hearing was chaired by Democratic New Jersey Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., who held a press conference in support of passage beforehand.
No comments yet.