Informant38

8,000 workers, 75 percent of whom had persistent respiratory problems
Most ground zero workers still suffer from health problems two years after Sept. 11 and many do not have health insurance or job security, doctors told a congressional panel Tuesday.
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David Rapp, a construction worker who spent five months at the World Trade Center site and now always carries an oxygen tank and uses three inhalers. "The fear of not being able to take my next breath is unbearable."

Rapp said he built docks and rebuilt cars before Sept. 11, 2001, but can no longer take out his garbage or change a flat tire.

John Graham, a carpenter and emergency services worker who spent three days a week at the site for several months, said he has asthma and is sometimes too sick to work.

"I'm a chronically ill man who's anxious about my ability to support my family," he said.
�Amy Westfeldt/AP/Yahoo 10.29.03
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Toxic Power Play
When Environmental Protection Agency investigators released a report in late August scolding the agency for misleading New Yorkers about the severity of air pollution in the days after the World Trade Center collapsed, the response was immediate and angry.
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That report died when Martin's office was shut down in April of 2002, eliminated in a controversial reorganization plan initiated by former EPA boss Christine Todd Whitman.
"My findings would have come out substantially earlier, and yes, they were buried," Martin says.
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Martin began looking into allegations that the agency misled New Yorkers within months of the attack. In early 2002, he held two hearings in lower Manhattan, investigating public claims that the agency had mishandled air monitoring and cleanup work and had falsely assured New Yorkers that the air was safe to breathe.
�Justin Scheck/Mother Jones 10.27.03