JERSEY CITY, NJ—Sept. 11 victim advocate Michael Barasch warned Jersey City firefighters Wednesday of the disproportionate risk of cancer and other diseases they may face as a result of responding to Ground Zero, and urged them to look into the federal World Trade Center Victim Compensation Fund.
“I want to scare you,” Barasch told about a dozen firefighters gathered for a union meeting on West Side Avenue, including several who responded to “the pile.” Barasch’s law firm, Barasch & McGarry, represents 15,000 clients suffering from illnesses resulting from the attacks. He said 5,000 have cancer and 2,000 of his clients have died.
“This was incredibly democratic dust,” said Barasch, adding that the dust at the World Trade Center during the nine-month cleanup was as toxic as Drano. “It didn’t care if you were a New York firefighter, Jersey City firefighter, white, black, Christian, Jewish or Muslim.”
But the compensation fund is not just for first responders. Recovery workers, cleanup crew, and construction workers are also eligible, as well as survivors who were caught in the dust, office workers, teachers, and students in the area.
In fact, anyone south of Canal Street, workers at the Staten Island Landfill or barge loading piers and those along routes of debris removal between Sept. 11, 2001, and May 31, 2002, may be eligible for healthcare and other types of compensation. Barasch said law firms representing 911 victims are limited to 10% of the compensation they get for their clients.
Peter Nowak, 49, a Jersey City firefighter for 28 years, responded to the Jersey City waterfront on Sept. 11 and helped getting dust-covered people off boats as they evacuated Manhattan. For the next 10 days he camped out in the Javits Center in Manhattan and helped in the search and recovery efforts downtown.
“It was a very unique smell, and I still get the taste in the back of my throat now and then,” said Nowak, who recalled finding body parts in the rubble. He said finding bodies was not outside the norm in his profession but “the sheer magnitude of the destruction was incredible.”
Nowak said he had been to the World Trade Center area some 100 times in the past but to “go over and not find any landmarks—it was unbelievable.”
At the union meeting, it was noted that Jersey City Fire Capt. Mark Lee died in 2013 of respiratory complications as a result of his time doing recovery work at ground zero. His memory is honored at the Annual Capt. Mark Lee Memorial 5k in Liberty State Park.
On Friday, the House of Representatives extended the life of the victims compensation fund by a vote of 402-12. The Senate will now take up the matter.
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