TWU Concerned About 9/11-Tied Illness in Ranks;
4,000 Members Had Roles in Rescue, Recovery Work

By GINGER ADAMS OTIS

Transport Workers' Union Local 100 is urging its members to sign up for medical monitoring in light of recent studies detailing ongoing respiratory problems among 9/11 first-responders, volunteers, workers and residents.

The Chief-Leader/Michel Friang STILL HAUNTED BY 9/11: Transit worker Gil Murphy was diagnosed with a traumatic stress disorder after the World Trade Center collapse but never sought treatment, even though some of his symptoms persist five years later.

Many transit workers were in the vicinity of Ground Zero when the two planes hit the Twin Towers - including the Conductor who stopped his train to pick up passengers huddled in the subway station underneath the World Trade Center - and later when the buildings came crashing down. Hundreds more responded to the area to help clear rubble in the days and weeks after the attack.

Big Presence on 'Pile'

A U.S. Department of Transportation report found that in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, transit workers from many different divisions made up approximately 60 percent of the labor force on "The Pile." An estimated 4,000 transit members contributed in some way to the rescue and recovery effort.

But it wasn't just the first hurried rush to help that has medical experts within the union concerned.

For months after 9/11, transit workers and outside contractors shifted tons of WTC debris that had filled up the subways below the site. They labored underground in airless conditions, amid wrecked stations originally constructed decades ago.

"Anything [built before the late 1970s], you should proceed with the assumption that heavy asbestos is present," said Local 100 President Roger Toussaint. "But work was proceeding in many cases without any masks, or the wrong kind of masks, especially in the first months."

Alarming Findings

A Mount Sinai Hospital report released three weeks ago found that 70 percent of people who signed up for medical monitoring post-9/11 experienced persistent lung illnesses. Independent studies from the Fire Department's Bureau of Health Services confirmed that 9/11 firefighters - particularly those exposed to the dust clouds from the buildings' collapse - suffer from breathing problems like Reactive Airway Disease Syndrome at 12 times the rate found in the general population.

Some transit workers signed up for the Mount Sinai Hospital World Trade Center Screening and Monitoring programs post-9/11, but union officials are worried that many who weren't immediately experiencing symptoms didn't participate.

The Chief-Leader/Michel Friang ERR ON THE SIDE OF CAUTION: Local 100 President Roger Toussaint says transit workers who responded to Ground Zero should sign up for regular medical monitoring and screening with World Trade Center health programs even if they're not experiencing any medical problems.

"I myself didn't sign up because I have been so busy, and should do so," acknowledged Mr. Toussaint. "We want to get the message out to workers that they should be pro-actively thinking about their health if they worked in the vicinity of Ground Zero." Gil Murphy, a painter for New York City Transit, considers himself one of the lucky ones who hasn't had any physical problems even though he responded on 9/11 and stayed there for several days.

Anxiety Lingers

But he has had residual anxiety attacks and some difficulty sleeping over the past five years.

"It was quite bad in the early days - I would have sweats and difficulty breathing out of nowhere, and just feel panicked," he said. "I got real jumpy."

Although they haven't disappeared completely, the intensity of the anxiety attacks slowly subsided, along with the bad dreams that Mr. Murphy preferred to call "vivid memories" instead of nightmares. He went to Mount Sinai doctors, who urged him to seek counseling for traumatic stress disorder.

Avoids Trains

"I never did. I can't really say why - I guess I just figured these feelings would go away," Mr. Murphy said.

But for a long time after 9/11, Mr. Murphy suffered anxiety attacks whenever he was on a train that had to go under the East River. He seemed to always glance at the clocks on his television and in his house just at the moment the time was 9:11. Eventually he requested a job detail closer to his home and stopped taking the subway to work, choosing instead to drive.

Some transit workers have been forced to retire since 9/11 due to health complications, Mr. Toussaint said. Because the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is a semi-autonomous entity, its employees apply for Workers' Compensation through the state system. But those who work in New York City Transit have their disability pensions processed by the New York City Employees' Retirement System.

Transit workers with less than 20 years on the job are eligible for disability pensions worth one-third of their annual salary - far less than the tax-free three-quarter disability pensions awarded to the city's police officers, firefighters and other uniformed workers.

'Highlighted Disparity'

"The events of 9/11 highlighted the overall disparity that exists between the disability pensions given to other public employees and transit workers," said John Samuelsen, who was acting vice president of Local 100's Maintenance of Way Division on 9/11.

Mr. Samuelsen, now a member of the Rail and Bus United slate running against the incumbent administration in upcoming union elections, said Local 100 needs to make a legislative push to change the disability pension award for transit workers.

"Transit workers have to deal with deplorable conditions; we have a very high injury rate. We work around heavy steel, live third rails and with train traffic coming at us all the time," he said. "By the time we retire, our knees are shot and our backs are shot - I know transit workers who have spent their whole lives working with injuries that cops and firefighters retire with because our one-third disability pension isn't enough to retire on."

Transit workers are included in the WTC Disability Law signed by Governor Pataki in 2005 that said certain illnesses afflicting public employees who worked 40 hours or more at the site are presumed related to 9/11.

But the law doesn't address disparities in pension awards that were legislatively decided for individual unions.

John Murphy, a transit worker who was diagnosed with 9/11-related lung problems, retired on disability last year. He won an award from the state Workers' Compensation system, but is still waiting for NYCERS to approve his pension.

Disabling Condition

Although only in his late 30s, Mr. Murphy said his lung ailments are so severe it's unlikely he'll be able to find extra work to help his family. He plays "Mr. Mom," he said, and does what he can to help run the household while his wife works.

Vibert Scrubbs, a veteran transit worker, is approaching retirement age, but may be forced out on disability first.

The usually healthy Mr. Scrubbs began to experience some tightness in his lungs and chest several weeks ago, and had a noticeable decline in energy. He went to Mount Sinai Hospital and, after running a battery of tests, doctors told him his lungs were fine. But he had an unidentifiable mass on the breastbone just above the heart. "The doctor said it's a lump - a mass of some sort. And it's got to come out soon," said Mr. Scrubbs. "I'm just trying to decide which procedure to take - the one where they come in through the side or the one where they come in through the front."

Fears for the Future

Given the large number of transit workers who assisted with rescue and recovery operations on 9/11, plus the hundreds who continued to work in the subway stations and tunnels around Ground Zero - many of which were never properly cleaned - Mr. Toussaint said the results of the Mount Sinai study were worrisome.

"We don't want to take anything away from the cops and the firefighters and the other first-responders who were involved on 9/11, but transit workers were also down there in large numbers doing what they could," he said.