Years later, cancer cases linger over 9/11 anniversary

NEW YORK - Jacquelin Febrillet was 26 years old on September 11, 2001 when jihadist hijackers flew two passenger jets into the World Trade Center just two blocks from where she worked.

Fifteen years after the attacks that day, Febrillet, by then a mother of three, was diagnosed with metastatic cancer. The likely cause: a cloud of toxic ash that engulfed her.

"I was there (on) 9/11... For years I have been working down there every day since 9/11. We were never told that something could happen," she says.

Unlike Febrillet, Richard Fahrer, then 19, wasn't in the area on 9/11, but he regularly worked as a land surveyor between 2001 and 2003 in south Manhattan, where the Twin Towers came crashing down.

Eighteen months ago, the young father, now 37, was diagnosed with aggressive colon cancer -- a disease that usually affects older men and which there is no history of in his family.

Febrillet and Fahrer represent a growing category of patient who were living or working close to the World Trade Center in the wake of the attacks, which killed almost 3,000 people.

They were not among the thousands of emergency personnel who rushed to the site or who spent months clearing debris at Ground Zero, but their health is being similarly affected.

As the 18th anniversary of the attacks approaches, New York continues to count the number of people who have developed cancer or other serious illnesses related to the toxic cloud that hovered over Manhattan for several weeks.

'PEOPLE ARE DYING'

The 9/11 attacks released unprecedented amounts of chemicals into the air, including dioxins, asbestos and other carcinogenic substances.

Firefighters, other first responders and volunteers who helped with the months-long clean-up were the first to be affected. Studies found they faced an increased risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease.

Ten thousand of them have been diagnosed with cancer by the World Trade Center Health Program, a federal treatment program helping survivors.

At the end of June this year, 21,000 people not considered first responders were also in the program -- twice as many as in June 2016. Of these, almost 4,000 have cancer, the most common being prostate, breast and skin.

Febrillet, now 44, is one of them. She recalls that the message at the time was to get the city back to normal as quickly as possible.

"People were just going about their business a few days later. But look at what happened a few years later, people are dying," says Febrillet, who also lived close to Ground Zero.

Fahrer, too, laments that city officials did not do more to protect residents and office staff in the vicinity.

"My wife asks me, 'Did terrorists cause your cancer?' I can't say 100 percent, but I do know there could have been better efforts to limit the exposure of healthy adults from entering into the disaster area," he says.

COMPENSATION FUND

Health experts say it is impossible to pinpoint exactly the cause of cancer in every patient, but note that there is a clear correlation between the rate and exposure to toxic debris.

Several studies have shown that the cancer rate "has increased between 10 and 30 percent" among people who were exposed compared to those who weren't, David Prezant, New York fire department chief medical officer, told AFP.

The rate is expected to increase further, he said, as exposed people get older. The risk of cancer increases with age and some cancers, including lung, can take 20 to 30 years to develop, Prezant added.

It is because of this that President Donald Trump signed a bill in July that extends a deadline for victims to file claims for compensation from December 2020 to 2090.

The Victim Compensation Fund will be regularly topped up after exhausting its initial budget of $7.3 billion. The average compensation per patient is $240,000, or $682,000 for a deceased person.

Lawyer Matthew Baione, who represents Fahrer and Febrillet in their pursuit of claims, said the extension recognized that it was appropriate to cover someone "who was a baby during the attacks for the rest of their life."

"We have lost so many people, so many friends are sick," says Febrillet

"You get to a point where you are not asking, 'Have you seen so and so, I wonder how she is doing, is she retired?'

"Instead you are asking, 'So how is the surgery, how is the treatment going?' We are so young, this shouldn't be happening."

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source: news.abs-cbn.com

Remains of some 9/11 victims dumped at landfill - US

WASHINGTON - Partial remains from some victims of the September 11 attacks were dumped in a landfill, the Pentagon revealed Tuesday for the first time, issuing a report that exposed years of bungling at the US military's most important mortuary.

The portions of remains that ended up at a landfill came from the 2001 attacks on the Pentagon and from a hijacked airliner that went down in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, on 9/11, according to the report by an independent panel.

The revelation came from a review of the troubled mortuary at Dover Air Force Base, which has been blamed for mishandling the remains of some troops killed in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The military had acknowledged last year that some portions of remains of fallen soldiers at the Dover mortuary in Delaware had been incinerated and sent to a Virginia landfill, a practice that angered military families and led to a new policy.

Starting in 2008, the military decided to dispose of unidentified cremated remains at sea.

But the review released Tuesday said "several portions of remains from the Pentagon attack and the Shanksville, Pennsylvania, crash site" also were taken to an unidentified landfill.

"These cremated portions were then placed in sealed containers that were provided to a biomedical waste disposal contractor," it said.

The report contradicts a 2011 US Air Force account which said there were no records that showed how remains at Dover were handled before 2003.

Details about the 9/11 remains were mentioned in passing as background material in the report, which focused on how to fix management problems at the troubled mortuary.

Retired Army general John Abizaid, who led the review, told reporters it was unclear how many partial remains of September 11 victims were involved.

"I don't know that there's a way to find out," he told reporters.

Air Force Secretary Michael Donley later on Tuesday said he was not aware that some remains of 9/11 victims had been taken to a landfill, saying: "This is new information to me."

But Abizaid said he had briefed all the armed services on his report's findings.

The coroner in Pennsylvania's Somerset County who oversaw the recovery of remains from hijacked Flight 93, which crashed in Shanksville, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette he was surprised to hear that any remains could have been taken to a landfill.

"Where they would have gotten those remains I have no idea," Wallace Miller was quoted as saying. The only remains sent out were taken to a military institute of pathology in Quantico, Virginia for DNA testing, he said.

The review also contained other revelations of botched management at Dover, with officials raising concerns about problems at the mortuary as early as 2002.

A May 2002 memo referred to worrisome "tracking problems" with remains, and a 2005 investigation confirmed that "human remains were misrouted in a fashion constituting dereliction of duty," according to the report.

In 2006, the remains of victims killed in the crash of a naval training T-29 aircraft were disposed of as "medical waste" instead of a group burial, it said.

The Air Force in 2008 had to pay a $25,000 settlement to the wife of a Marine for "mental anguish and medical costs" due to the loss of the Marine's personal effects, while in 2009 the mortuary faced allegeations of "fraud."

Donley said the Air Force had accepted "responsibility and culpability" over the blunders at Dover mortuary but was now working to ensure no more mistakes occur, Donley said.

"Our focus is from here forward," he said.

An investigation last year found "gross mismanagement" at the facility, with body parts lost in two cases and remains of others mishandled. The findings came after three Air Force employees raised alarm bells over the facility and after an independent probe criticized the Air Force for initially punishing the whistle blowers.

The review issued Tuesday called for bolstering oversight at Dover, restructuring the chain of command overseeing the mortuary, expanding training and hiring more staff members.

It remained unclear Tuesday if the Air Force would sack any of those responsible for the errors at Dover.

article source: interaksyon.com

September 11 pictures

September 11 pictures- Today is the anniversary of September 11 Attack and iPhone App Store offers the Explore 9/11. Users can download the application. The app was launched- August 26 and offered by the National September 11 Memorial and Museum which is not yet open. Before the opening of the museum, they have released this app which provides users with a number of photos of the tragic experience.


September 11 is the day of sadness, sorrow and affliction. We shall never forget that day. Many had lost their lives, and lives of their loved ones so tragically so lets pray for all the innocent victims of the terrorist attacks in New York City. Lets commemorate this as day of reflection.