New York City chief medical examiner Charles Hirsch has officially linked the death of 42-year-old Felicia Dunn-Jones to the toxic dust caused by the World Trade Center's collapse.
Chief Medical Examiner Charles Hirsch, citing "accumulated scientific research" that concluded exposure to trade center dust can cause or contribute to sarcoidosis, said that "Mrs. Dunn-Jones' exposure to World Trade Center dust on 9/11/01 contributed to her death and it has been ruled a homicide."
"Mrs. Dunn-Jones has now been added to the list of people who died as a result of the collapse of the World Trade Center towers," Hirsch wrote.
Dunn-Jones was a civil rights attorney whose office was located one block from the World Trade Center and became engulfed in the toxic dust while fleeing the collapsing towers on September 11, 2001. Soon after, Ms. Jones developed a severe cough, and started to have difficulty breathing. Within five months, Ms. Dunn-Jones would be dead from sarcoidosis.
Sarcoidosis (sar"koi-do'sis) involves inflammation that produces tiny lumps of cells in various organs in your body. The lumps are called granulomas (gran"u-lo'mahs) because they look like grains of sugar or sand. They are very small and can be seen only with a microscope.
These tiny granulomas can grow and clump together, making many large and small groups of lumps. If many granulomas form in an organ, they can affect how the organ works. This can cause symptoms of sarcoidosis.
Sarcoidosis can occur in almost any part of your body, although it usually affects some organs more than others. It usually starts in one of two places:
Lungs
Lymph nodes, especially the lymph nodes in your chest cavity
Chest Journal, which is published by the American College of Chest Physicians, recently published a study (pdf) which showed that rescue workers and firefighters who were at the WTC site contracted sarcoidosis at a rate which was five times greater than in the years prior to 9/11/01. Included among the nine doctors who published the study was Dr. David Prezant, who was the medical officer tasked with monitoring NYC firefighters.
While there have been previous studies which pointed to a direct connection between inhalation of the toxic dust cloud which resulted from the collapsing towers, this is the first to focus specifically on one disease.
A class action lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency was put in motion in 2004.
Robert Gulack, a senior attorney with the Securities and Exchange Commission, was in his office in the 7 World Trade Center building when terrorists hijacked the two commercial airlines and flew them into the Twin Towers. Gulack got out before his building collapsed. Just over a month later, he returned to the neighborhood to work in the SEC’s new offices in the Woolworth building, a few blocks from the World Trade Center site, after being told it was safe. But two days later, he developed asthma; then he fell ill with bronchitis and pneumonia. Testing showed abnormally high levels of asbestos in his office building and on the outside walls. By the time he was granted federal compensation last month for "an upper respiratory inflammation due to fumes and vapors" at the building, an X-ray showed he had already developed permanent scars on his lungs.
Now Gilroy and Gulack are serving as plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit against the EPA, claiming that the agency exposed them and thousands of others to health risks by prematurely announcing that it was safe to return to the buildings located near the World Trade Center site or in the path of the plume of dust that escaped from the rubble. "The EPA absolutely misled and misrepresented the conditions to people and lulled them into a false sense of security. And some of the information that was endorsed by the EPA has been extremely harmful to people," says Sherrie Savett, one of the lawyers who filed the suit. "Part of the relief we asked for is dictated under legal doctrine. We are looking for them to do their job."
The 113-page lawsuit, which was filed in Manhattan Federal Court on March 10, alleges that residents, workers and students were allowed to return to the area before proper testing and cleaning had been completed. It also accuses the agency of using inadequate asbestos testing measures, distributing ineffective—and in some cases, harmful—self-cleaning instructions to residents, and failing to provide professional cleaning for contaminated offices and residences. The filing lists 12 plaintiffs, including Gulack, and Gilroy and his daughter, and asks for unspecified damages, reimbursement for cleaning expenses and the establishment of a medical monitoring program for those who were exposed to the contaminated dust to examine both the physical and emotional effects.
The agency would not comment specifically on the lawsuit, but in a statement released Thursday, EPA regional administrator Jane Kenny said, "The suggestion that the EPA has not done everything within its power to protect people’s health in the face of this terrible disaster is preposterous."
The case of death on Ms. Jones' death certificate will be changed from natural causes to homicide. The official number of those who have died from the 9/11 attacks will be changed to 2,750.
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