9-11 responder dies of cancer from the rescue effort AFSCME total now 3

Another 9/11 Victim

NEW YORK CITY

Cancer directly linked to asbestos has claimed the life of Deborah Reeve, a Local 2507 (DC 37) paramedic in New York City who was a first-responder at Ground Zero. Two 9/11 — and Local 2507 — colleagues perished some four years after beginning work at Ground Zero: EMT Tim Keller, 41, from complications of respiratory distress; and EMT Felix Hernandez, 31, from lung disease.

Family members say Reeve, who was 40, developed a persistent cough after working at the disaster site, and two years later was diagnosed with mesothelioma, a fatal cancer triggered by breathing airborne asbestos fibers.

Survivors of these AFSCME members have not received increased pension-fund payments from New York state for work-related injury resulting in death. "It's difficult to prove that the diseases are work related," explains Lee Clarke, director of Safety and Health for DC 37, which represents more than 3,000 rescuers and responders in the city. "If you jab yourself with a needle and get hepatitis C, you can prove injury. But 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina demonstrate that pension-compensation laws have not been written in ways that protect first-responders for illnesses resulting from disaster-related work."

http://www.afscme.org/publications/public_employee/2006/pemj0621.htm

written here now to protect the government and employers - doncha' know.

"If you jab yourself with a needle and get hepatitis C, you can prove injury. But 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina demonstrate that pension-compensation laws have not been written in ways that protect first-responders for illnesses resulting from disaster-related work."

The original EPA report should be able to be used as evidence of injury, imo. They were breathing aerosol drain cleaner for crying out loud; or as close as you can get to it.

Christine Todd Whitman is a criminal. She and *co didn't give them even a glimmer of the chance to protect themselves.

It did not have to be this way.

And it has gotten really old, really fast.

Corporate person-hood needs revoked immediately. It was the beginning of the end for us common folks, for We the People.