Letters to the Editor:
ME Wrongly Blames Victim

To the Editor:

I never thought I would see the day the City of New York would stoop so low as to accuse a Detective in the Police Department of causing his own illness and death.

In recent articles the City Medical Examiner, Dr. Charles Hirsch, stated through his spokesperson that "retired Police Detective James Zadroga was injecting pills into his bloodstream, leaving traces of the pills in the lung tissue," and, "It is our opinion that that material entered his body via the bloodstream and not via the airways," thereby telling his family that it was his prescribed medication that killed this hero and not the more-than 450 hours working at the WTC site.

Dr. Hirsch is narrowly reading science, and used his own publications, "Microcrystalline Cellulose Pulmonary Embolism and Granulomatosis" and "The Pulmonary Vascular Lesions of Intravenous Drug Abuse" from 1980-1981 to formulate his opinion.

In these studies, he and his co-authors found that dead known illicit IV drug-users developed lung granulomas from nonsoluble fibers and fillers used in the making of oral pills. These became embedded in lung tissue when the addicts ground up these pills, mixed them with a liquid and injected them into their bloodstream.

I would have to assume Dr. Hirsch has not picked up a medical journal since 1981, as he has overlooked many studies written on the subject of cellulose fibers and granulomas in patients, and none of the patients in these studies were illicit IV drug abusers. Not to mention studies on Sarcoidosis by Dr. David Prezant, et al, (FDNY), and Granulomatous Pneumonitis by Safirstein et.al, (Mt. Sinai). Even studies, for example, written by Stephen H. Gavett in 2006 stated that, "Fibrous components [in the dust at the WTC Site] included chrysotile asbestos, glass fibers, and fibers from cotton, wood and paper (cellulose)" and that the dust even a month later held elevated levels of concrete and wallboard associated minerals, especially quartz and gypsum, with calcite and portlandite," In one patient, "BAL (Broncheoalveolar Ravage) microphages contained numerous fibers including chrysotile and amosite asbestos."

Another titled, "Characterizations of the dust/smoke aerosol that settled east of the WTC," by Lioy, et al. in 2002, states, "Significant amounts (10 percent of the mass) of cellulose were found in all three samples [Cortlandt St., Cherry St. and Market St.]. This observation is consistent with the release of large amounts of disintegrated paper and other products that were originally part of the indoor work environment," and the amount was as high as 20 percent at Market St. The study also found "fibrous lint," dyed cotton fibers, tarry fragments, pollen grains and metal flakes were also present" in the dust.

I can continue, but you can clearly see that the dust contained large amounts of fibrous materials, organic and inorganic material, and given the force of the collapse, that debris was inhaled with force and ingested. And that during the months of cleanup, debris was constantly made airborne; thus it is completely plausible even to those who are not scientists, epidemiologists or medical examiners to conclude that airborne contaminants at the WTC site could have easily embedded themselves in lung tissue.

I guess Dr. Hirsch was never on a motorcycle with his mouth open and had the misfortune to forcibly inhale a bug or inhale dust in a field when the wind kicks up.

While these examples are minor compared to the collapse on 9/11, they paint a good example. Maybe he has never read any of these studies because he does not get up from under the shadow of City Hall long enough to even read the studies by Kobayashi, Pauly et al or as in Cullen et al, to see that several studies have shown "pathological changes such as granuloma, alveolitis, epithelial hyperplasia and fibrosis in the lung following instillation of inhalation of cellulose fibers." Ironically, Cullen's paper was written in 2000, before 9/11.

A haphazard determination made by the NYC Medical Examiner, a position that should hold integrity and autonomy from political subterfuge, has tried to impugn the integrity of a Police Detective by blaming his death on his medication. What Dr. Hirsch fails to see is that the Detective took the medication for respiratory ailments developed post-9/11. The illness came first.

How he came to this conclusion without examining the body or any evidence in the original autopsy yielding evidence to his theory is amazingly suspect. The family and the Detectives Endowment Association should demand an explanation and not accept the Mayor's statement that the decision was "based on medical evidence." They should be shown the evidence that led to this decision.

And quite frankly, I am tired of hearing City Hall's statements that this does "nothing to change their commitment to those that need it." This paper has valiantly reported on agencies overseen by Mayor Bloomberg that fail to take care of responders, and yet his answer is to defer responsibility to Congress and reopening the Victim Compensation Fund.

Help begins at home, Mayor Bloomberg. Give these people their pensions and Workers' Compensation and acknowledge that 9/11 is killing us so we have a rightful place on the memorial when our life is cut short due to protecting the citizens of this city.

MARIANNE PIZZITOLA, President, FDNY EMS Retirees Association