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State Told: Ease 9/11 Disability Pension Rules; Panel: Hours, Areas Exclude Too Many; Mayor Supportive
Wide Backing The 19-member task force suggested seven amendments that have broad support, even from Mayor Bloomberg, who strongly opposed the 9/11 disability measure. The Mayor has repeatedly said that he believes the Federal Government should pay the costs related to first-responders and others who have fallen ill as a result of their work following the terrorist attack. But last week a mayoral spokesman said that City Hall backed the proposed changes, which would likely increase the city's pension costs during a weakening economy.
Citing the report and the latest medical studies, union leaders for the city's firefighters, Emergency Medical Service personnel and police officers are planning a collective effort in Albany to get updates this legislative session to the law that was signed by then-Governor George Pataki. The proposed changes also include expanding geographic boundaries and creating universal criteria for reviewing applications. Areas Now Covered Under the law, employees are eligible only if they worked at the "World Trade Center site," defined as "anywhere below a line starting from the Hudson River and Canal Street; east on Canal Street to Pike Street; south on Pike Street to the East River; and extending to the lower tip of Manhattan''; or at the Fresh Kills landfill or the barges traveling to and from the Fresh Kills landfill, or at the Bellevue City Morgue or the temporary morgue.
The document noted that a "few additional locales and circumstances" have been identified as hazardous, including Fire Department and NYPD garages where heavily contaminated vehicles were cleaned and repaired. "Workers in those areas were exposed to some of the same toxic materials and/or psychological stresses as were workers at the WTC site, even if not to the extreme levels that were experienced by workers present at the WTC during the attacks or collapse," the report said. Include Early Exits The report also suggested allowing workers who have retired without fully vesting or who are on non-WTC-related disability to file for the superior 9/11-related disability benefits if they later qualify for that pension.
The task force also recommended including county correction officers and sheriffs from outside New York City who were deployed to the WTC site, as well as acknowledging the extended time limit for Workers' Compensation claims by allowing individuals who became disabled after Sept. 11, 2003 an opportunity to file. Patrolmen's Benevolent Association President Patrick J. Lynch said that he strongly supports reducing the "arbitrary" 40-hour prerequisite. PBA: 'They Deserve Help' "There is evidence that workers present during the first 48 hours after the collapse are more likely to develop illnesses," he said in a statement. "They deserve and have earned the protection that the 9/11 disability law provides, and the PBA will seek legislation to provide it to them." Under the current law, claimants must have "participated in World Trade Center rescue, recovery or cleanup operations for a minimum of 40 hours." The only exception is for people who were actually physically injured on Sept. 11 or 12, 2001. The task force report argued that the 40-hour requirement had disadvantaged civilian employees who participated in the recovery and cleanup operations but had to leave or were sent home by their supervisors before they worked the required time to qualify for the disability benefit. Injured Early On Those employees often left precisely because they were already suffering adverse health effects from working at the site, the report said. The task force said that the 40-hour requirement was a "reasonable benchmark," but added that "the unprecedented high density of the WTC dust (and of psychological stress) that was present during the first two days should be recognized as likely to be pathogenic in a much shorter period of time." The present law effectively denies practically all civilian employees, because most of those workers did not have a pre-employment physical examination, which is required for many first-responders, the task force report said. According to the municipal unions, the city's five pension systems have also been using different criteria to review applications for the disability benefit. To rectify that problem, the report recommended that the retirement systems publicly disclose their requirements. "Medical determination should be fair and transparent," the document said. The task force, which is chaired by Dr. Thomas Knight Aldrich from Montefiore Medical Center, also detailed some of the health ailments responders have been experiencing as a result of their time near exposed areas. "The fires at the site created toxic combustion products, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), dioxins, volatile organic compounds, and various other known carcinogenic compounds," the report said. The dust and ash resulting from the building's collapse also included contaminants such as asbestos, hydrochloric acid, silica and heavy metals, the document added. The task force's commission of doctors also concluded that many first-responders were suffering from the psychological trauma of the deaths and dismemberment of many colleagues, friends and associates. Four Major Ailments According to the report, the major known health consequences of 9/11 have fallen into four categories: physical trauma, upper and lower respiratory diseases, gastroesophageal reflux and posttraumatic stress disorder and other mental health ailments. There is also concern about the eventual development of a fifth category: WTC-related late-emerging diseases, such as cancer, immunologic, cardiac and post-utero developmental diseases. The Interim Report noted that medical experts have testified that the WTC cough is a real illness. "There was a clear exposure-response gradient, with the highest symptom prevalence found in those directly exposed to the dust cloud, arriving during the morning of 9/11/01," the report noted. According to the research, 95 percent of the WTC dust was composed of large particulate matter "rarely entering the lower respiratory structures." The draft version of the report obtained by THE CHIEF-LEADER last October noted that the Fire Department conducted over 10,000 exams of firefighters. "Through comparisons of five-year chest x-rays and breathing tests for firefighters, the department has found that 20-25 percent of the responders have cough and wheeze issues," that document stated. Cancer Problem? The problems include rare cancers, such as mesothelioma and pancreatic cancer, according to the initial report. "Recent reports show that Mt. Sinai hospital staff are seeing unusual clusters of blood cancers such as leukemia, lymphoma and multiple myeloma in police staff, construction workers and volunteers at Ground Zero," that document stated. But last week's report said that there has not been any correlation shown between WTC exposure and an increased cancer rate of any kind, based on the latest medical data. "Since cancers are latent diseases that can develop long after carcinogen exposure, it is critical that long-term, in-depth monitoring be implemented for those who were exposed to the WTC contaminants," the task force said. The report noted that the current pre-employment physical requirement was designed to avoid compensating responders for illnesses that pre-dated the 9/11 WTC disaster. "However, most pre-employment exams lack the specificity and sensitivity to reliably diagnose and determine severity of conditions that are currently considered WTC-related," the document stated. Sent to Governor The recommendations are being reviewed by Governor Spitzer. The unions backing the changes are hoping the Governor moves to introduce legislation to amend the law. "It would be much easier if it came from him," said Mr. Matarazzo, who has spearheaded the lobbying effort. The DEA official called the changes "technical improvements" and "basic amendments" that deal with problems that surfaced after the initial legislation was passed. "I'm very proud of this," he asserted, referring to the new report. District Council 37, however, is still trying to add 9/11 illnesses as a presumptive workers' comp disability for its civilian workers. The union has created a taskforce subcommittee to examine that issue, which would make it easier for its members suffering from such ailments to be eligible for disability benefits. Lee Clarke, the director of DC 37's Safety and Health Department, noted that the other union members of the task force represented law-enforcement organizations. Civilian employees, she noted, are covered by Workers' Compensation, while uniformed officers are protected under a different set of line-of-duty benefits. "We made great progress, but it was a struggle to get people to understand workers' comp laws and occupational diseases," Ms. Clarke said. For the report, the task force relied heavily on medical evidence to make its case and convince all sides to reach a consensus on complicated matters, Mr. Matarazzo said. "It was a very long and tedious report to put out," he remarked. PTSD Importance Mr. Matarazzo noted that the report also cited medical findings that firefighters and other responders are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Mental health programs for city workers are now seeing 3,000 cases a year, where before 9/11 they saw fewer than 500 per year, according to the initial report. "Hopefully we covered things that were a little bit shadowy, like the post-traumatic stress disorder," Mr. Matarazzo remarked. Some civilian unions have already worked to persuade the Legislature to include their members in new pieces of 9/11 disability legislation. Last summer, Governor Spitzer signed a bill incorporating the city's auto mechanics in World Trade Center disability and pension laws. That legislation allows the city's 1,000 mechanics who cleaned Fire Department, Police Department and Sanitation Department vehicles post-9/11 to apply for disability pensions if they develop a WTC-related illness. Mechanics and other civilian titles were left out of the original law due to its geographic limitation language. Joseph Colangelo, president of Service Employees' International Union Local 246, which represents the mechanics, said many of his members were at those sites and met the eligibility requirements to file a claim. But other mechanics who tended to city rigs at the West 34th St. and 58th St. garages didn't initially qualify, Mr. Colangelo noted, because those locations weren't included as part of the "zone" established by the disability bill. City Opposed The Mayor's Office opposed the bill primarily because of the cost, submitting a fiscal note estimating it at $500,000 annually. But the Bloomberg administration also questioned the need for such a measure, asserting that its supporters had failed to demonstrate that mechanics who repaired, cleaned or rehabilitated city vehicles were exposed to the same health risks as other public employees. In what may be a harbinger for similar legislation likely to soon be introduced, Governor Spitzer rejected that argument. "Auto Mechanics made a significant contribution to the rescue and clean-up operation following the attack on the WTC," the bill's approval memo stated. "If these auto workers are ill ... they deserve the same benefits afforded to other NYC employees."
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