Living Victims of 9/11

On Thursday, as we observe the thirteenth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on America, it is good to remember not only those heroes and victims that died, but to also remember the living victims of 9/11.

The venomous evil directed at America that day has poisoned us in many ways, but this statement becomes more than metaphor when it applies to thousands of living victims who are sick and dying from illnesses and injuries. More than any other of those victimized by 9/11, this groups seems to be most forgotten by the public. In a New York Daily News opinion piece on Sunday, August 31, Richard Alles, national legislative director with the Uniformed Fire Officers Association, and James Slevin, vice president of the Uniformed Firefighters Association, describe some of those whose lives did not end on 9/11, but whose death sentences were written that day.

H/T for sharing Alles and Slevin’s “When 9/11 Arrives, Remember the Living,” to the extraordinary Facebook cause page, Never Forget 9/11 by Richard Karns. That labor of love was founded in January 2010 and provides all kinds of articles, photos, and other resources about 9/11. I urge you to visit that page if you are on Facebook.

Alles and Slevin write, “What many Americans may not know is that as the nation recovered, a public health disaster was just beginning to unfold. Thousands are sick because of the attacks, as well as the rescue and recovery operations that continued for months afterward.” 

First responders and recovery personnel came from all over the nation to Ground Zero after the attack and worked in extremely hazardous conditions, often without adequate protection. “As they labored, the site smoldered, and rescue and recovery workers breathed in a toxic stew of chemicals, asbestos, pulverized cement and other health hazards released into the air when the towers fell,” Alles and Slevin explain. They add that the same toxic fumes permeated homes, offices, and elsewhere in the “dust cloud that so unforgettably rolled through lower Manhattan after the attacks settled in homes, offices, buildings and elsewhere.”

Here are just a few of the tragic statistics thirteen years later, according to Alles and Slevin:

• More than 30,000 9/11 responders, as well as survivors of the attacks and area residents and workers, have an illness or injury caused by the attacks or their aftermath, and over two-thirds of those have more than one illness.
  
• 60 types of cancer have been identified as caused by 9/11 toxins, and at least 2800 people have, so far, been diagnosed with cancers caused by or made worse by the aftermath of the attacks.
• More than 800 New York Fire Department members and more than 550 New York Police Department personnel are struggling with serious 9/11-related illnesses, many of them cancers, and have had to retire from their jobs for health reasons.
• More than 70 firefighters and 60 NYPD officers  have died from their 9/11-related illnesses.

Alles and Slevin urge, “This Sept. 11, as Americans gather to honor and remember those who lost their lives that day, we are calling on the organizers of these memorials — governors, mayors, city councils and neighborhood and civic groups throughout America — to recognize the living victims of the attacks as well.”

As you remember the events of 9/11/01, please remember, and say a prayer for, all those who continue to bear the scars.