"Plaintiffs in 9/11 health lawsuits forced to make tough choice; Compensation fund open to those who drop cases" by David B. Caruso | Associated Press, December 26, 2011
NEW YORK - More than 1,600 people who filed lawsuits saying their health was ruined by dust and smoke from the collapsed World Trade Center must decide by Jan. 2 whether to keep fighting in court, or drop the litigation and apply for benefits from a government compensation fund.
For some, the choice is fraught with risk.
Federal lawmakers set aside $2.76 billion last winter for people who developed illnesses after spending time in the ash-choked disaster zone.
But to be considered for a share of the aid, all potential applicants must dismiss any pending lawsuits by the deadline and give up their right to sue forever over 9/11 health problems. Anyone with a lawsuit still pending on Jan. 3 is barred from the program for life.
The government program is attractive because it spares the sick from having to prove that their illness is related to 9/11 and that someone other than the terrorists put them in harm’s way.
But applicants won’t know for months, or even years, how much money they might receive from the program. That means some people may give up their lawsuits and find out later that they only qualify for a modest payment.
Others face a deeper problem. People exposed to trade center dust have blamed it for hundreds of illnesses, but the fund covers a limited number of ailments, including asthma, scarred lungs, and other respiratory system problems.
That list does not include any type of cancer, which scientists have yet to link to trade center toxins.
But the possibility that cancer could, someday, be covered has led some plaintiffs to drop their lawsuits anyway.
“In a sense, I’ve weighed my options and rolled the dice believing that the country I helped is not going to let me down,’’ said John Walcott, former New York City police detective, who retired after being diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia in 2003.
I didn't realize police officers could be so naive.
He decided a few days before Christmas to drop his case, saying he had come to believe he would never get anything out of the legal system.
Why would he? They have been involved in the cover-up after the fact.
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I stand corrected:
"50 cancers added to list covered by Sept. 11 fund; Allows more who seek treatment to apply for money" by Anemona Hartocollis | New York Times, June 09, 2012
NEW YORK - The decision, by Dr. John Howard, director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, poses a number of logistical challenges, since it will be difficult to separate people who developed cancer as a result of the attack from those who would have gotten the disease anyway, and because many cancer diagnoses are likely to be made years after the fund is exhausted....
From the beginning, scientists, doctors, and victims of the attack have complained that there was very little real-time data collected on toxic substances at the World Trade Center site and on levels of exposure. On the contrary, in the early days, there were official statements that it was safe to operate at the site.
Those statements by Whitman and Rice are crimes.
Many first responders unflinchingly followed orders to report for work downtown for days, weeks, months, and years on end, without thinking of the health consequences.
And now this great government won't take care of them.
Volunteers poured into the site. Children at schools in the immediate vicinity were at first evacuated, but returned to school while the area was still a wasteland....
Children were exposed to what amounts to a chemical weapons attack?
And Obomber wants us to look at the staged and scripted videos of gassed Syrian children?
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Related: 9/11 cancer study is inconclusive
There will be no money for cancer. The southern Gulf Coast people are right behind you, to be followed by the people of Japan.
Also see: 9/11 Memory Hole: Final Flight
9/11 Memory Hole: 12 Years Later
I'm no longer sure what brought those buildings down, although I do know it was not jet fuel fires.
