Thousands of Workers at Ground Zero Still Suffer Lung Problems
9-12-06
Many of the workers who served at the World Trade Center after the September eleventh attacks became
__________. They breathed a harmful mix of __________, smoke and chemicals in the ruins of the Twin
Towers and a third building that fell. Some went days without __________ protection for their lungs. Five
years later, many of the thousands who worked at Ground Zero in the early __________ after the attacks still
have health problems.
Doctors at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City have announced the results of the largest
__________ yet of these workers. The results appeared last __________ in Environmental Health
Perspectives, the journal of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. The study is called the
World Trade Center Worker and Volunteer Medical Screening __________.
It confirmed high rates of breathing __________ in members of the building trades, firefighters, police officers
and other workers. Almost seventy percent of the workers in the study had a __________ or worsened
breathing problem. These problems developed during or after their time __________ in the mountain of
wreckage. About sixty percent still had breathing problems at the __________ of their examination.
The researchers say they decided to study the effects on breathing first because other disorders might be
__________ to appear. Mount Sinai says it tested almost twelve thousand people __________ two thousand
two and two thousand four. Eight out of ten of them agreed to have their results used in the report. The new
__________ added strength to a Mount Sinai study released in two thousand four. That study was based on
only about one thousand __________.
Some lawmakers have sharply criticized city and __________ officials for letting workers labor at Ground
Zero without satisfactory equipment. Officials have also been criticized for saying the air was relatively
__________. State and federal officials have promised more than fifty million dollars to __________ for
treatment of the workers. Doctor Robin Herbert is one of the __________ of the Mount Sinai testing
program. She says __________ are still coming to the hospital for treatment of problems they say were
caused by the dust at Ground Zero. In her words: "My worry is that __________ will be gone in a year, and
what happens then?"
Between
Money
Program
State
Days
Directors
New
Pay
Results
Safe
Study
Time
Week
Dust
People
Sick
Workers
Good
Problems
Slower
Working