Cyrus Dugger

Ground Zero Workers Abandoned Once Again

As I briefly mentioned in a previous post, the federal government was attempting to create guidelines for proving Ground Zero related deaths from autopsies that included a hard to meet burden of proof. At the time I wrote the previous post, the federal government’s agency had submitted their Draft Guidelines for public comment.

After receiving these comments (many of which likely made the point I made in my previous post) the federal government has now decided to completely drop the creation of these guidelines.

Dropping these guidelines is not the correct approach. Although both the city (as discussed here) and federal governments have been incredibly disappointing in their inability to endorse medical guidelines for Ground Zero related illnesses, and neither entity created any version of these guidelines until near the politically significant date of the 5th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, these previous failures don’t give the federal government a free pass to just give up now.

Instead of simply giving up, the federal government should endorse fair standards of proof that allow a presumption for a connection of the death to exposure at Ground Zero. The reason the federal and city governments have both taken so long is likely out of concern for their own legal liability. There are currently lawsuits pending against the city, and another against the federal government, for their failures related to protecting against the toxic environmental aftermath at Ground Zero.

Both groups have delayed putting out official standards that could make it easier to prove illnesses or fatalities related to exposure to Ground Zero.

Of course, the longer we wait for more people to die, the stronger the available proof of connections to Ground Zero exposure as well as the more data to inform guidelines there will be… be at what additional human cost?

What is also interesting is, as I have commented before, the rationale for not doing the hard work that would allow workable standards to assist these injured victims… is financial.

One of those reviewers was Dr. David J. Prezant, chief medical officer of the New York City Fire Department.
In a copy of his written comments to the draft guidelines, Prezant said that only a large-scale epidemiological study that analyzes the medical history of many workers would yield the kind of information Howard was seeking.
He also noted that the collection and detailed microscopic analysis of tissue samples recommended in the guidelines could only be done in specialized laboratories and pathology centres.

If what is needed is “a large-scale epidemiological study that analyzes the medical history of many workers” and “specialized laboratories and pathology centres” are needed why can’t we get these the necessary resources to get this job done , and why does the need for it de-rail the creation of government standards for assigning a causal link between exposure to Ground Zero and a person’s death? Certainly, the reason can’t be the additional cost of these studies, since it is hard to think of a more important budgetary priority than something related to recovery from the 9/11 attacks (especially in light of the $344,000,000,000 we have spent on the Iraq war)

Even if doing these studies may take a good deal of time, then let’s get started on them now instead of just giving up.

Lastly, one has to ask oneself, if it was clear that “a large-scale epidemiological study that analyzes the medical history of many workers would” was necessary, why did the federal government try to create guidelines (which many have criticized as making it harder to prove causation than it otherwise would be) for proving that a death was Ground Zero related…. without one?

As I have stated before, the initial guidelines were likely affected by an attempt on the part of government to avoid liability in the pending lawsuits:

Medical experts outside the government expressed concern that guidelines could be seen as an attempt to assess liability for diseases rather than an effort to find answers that could lead to improved diagnosis and treatment.

If ever there should be an easy process it should be the legal process for Ground Zero first responders, cleanup workers, residents, and attack victims to get compensation and medical treatment for their Ground Zero related injuries.

And yet time and time again, city, state, and federal officials have made it as hard as possible for these people to access justice.

You’ve got to ask yourself…why?

Posted at 11:21 AM, Nov 21, 2006 in Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)