WIS News 10 - Columbia, South Carolina | Emergency worker's death blamed on fumes from World Trade Center site

Emergency worker's death blamed on fumes from World Trade Center site

(New York City-NBC) April 11, 2006 - More than four years later, the World Trade Center attack is still claiming lives. Now it's official, emergency workers are dying from exposure to the toxic fumes at ground zero.

For the first time medical examiners have directly linked a post-9/11 death of an emergency worker to exposure to toxic dust at the World Trade Center site.

Detective Michael Palladino of the Detectives' Endowment Association says, "It is felt with a reasonable degree of medical certainty, that the cause of death in the case was directly related to the 9/11 incident."

New York detective James Zadroga immediately responded to the scene on September 11th, logged almost 500 hours there in the weeks following the attacks and died in January.

Zadroga's father says, "He said if he had to do it over again, I would. That's the kind of guy he was."

Now the Detectives' Endowment Association believes hundreds, if not thousands of other emergency workers could be reaping the harmful consequences.

Detective Palladino blames the EPA, "We were misled by the EPA, and it shouldn't be where the financial burden of this lies solely on the shoulders of the city of New York."

So far the federal government has not offered financial assistance for those who may have been exposed to toxic chemicals at the World Trade Center site.

The Detectives' Endowment Association also wants to change pension laws for families of police officers who are suffering with diseases caused by their response to the September 11th attacks.

Posted 9:21pm by Chantelle Janelle