Byline: SAMANTHA MARSHALL
Every time John Graham walks past an idling bus or climbs stairs, he breaks into a fit of wheezing and coughing. The health and safety instructor, who's only 40, is on steroids and can't leave his house without an inhaler for his asthma.
Before Sept. 11, 2001, when he began working at the World Trade Center site, he had never had to take medicine in his life. ``Now, I have to work twice as hard as everybody else just to breathe,'' Mr. Graham said.
The aftereffects for thousands of those who worked at the disaster site are not going away. That's the preliminary conclusion of doctors working at The Mount Sinai Medical Center's World Trade Center Worker and Volunteer Medical Screening Program, which is examining men and women who took part in the recovery and cleanup efforts.
The lingering symptoms raise troubling questions about how long it will take workers to recover and how much it will cost to treat them.
``What is so surprising is how persistent these symptoms are, despite the fact that exposure stopped a long time ago,'' said Dr. Stephen Levin, medical director of The Mount Sinai-Selikoff Center for Occupational and Environmental Medicine, who coordinates the screening program.
Mount Sinai received close to $12 million in federal funds in August to screen 8,500 workers, a task that it expects to complete by the end of June. To help care for them, Bear Stearns & Co. last month gave the hospital $1 million to pay for a one-year ``Health for Heroes'' program.
The problem, noted Dr. Levin, ``is that there is no question that people will need care beyond a year.''
Of the more than 2,000 volunteers and workers from the WTC site and the Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island who have been examined under the program, about 60% have been diagnosed with an upper or lower respiratory illness. Some 30% to 40% have acid reflux. Close to 60% have symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Those screened so far represent only a fraction of the 30,000 recovery workers and volunteers who may be suffering from some form of physical or mental ailment, or both. Workers inhaled and swallowed pulverized concrete, glass, silica and other substances, which produced burns on the lungs, chronic sinus infections and bronchitis.
The Mount Sinai findings confirm and expand on earlier studies about the effects of working near the disaster site. The New York Fire Department disclosed in a September report, for example, that 358 firefighters and five paramedics are on medical leave because of respiratory problems related to their work at Ground Zero.
The physicians at Mount Sinai note that some patients have begun to recover, while others have at least reached a plateau. Unfortunately, others' conditions are worsening, because the individuals didn't seek treatment for several months. In addition to those groups are people about whom little is known, as they have not come forward even for testing.
Most of the people already seen at Mount Sinai knew they had WTC-related medical problems and readily came for treatment, which helps explain why such high percentages were found to have suffered lasting ill effects. However, other workers came in for tests although they had no symptoms, because they saw their co-workers getting sick and thought they should get checked. A significant number in this group were diagnosed with respiratory and other health problems.
Mr. Graham, who also works as a volunteer emergency medical technician, was at the site just before the North Tower fell, creating a giant plume of toxic smoke and debris. ``I got a dump-truck-sized dose of the stuff in about 10 minutes,'' he said.
Immediate trouble
Mr. Graham realized something was wrong the following Saturday, when he had to sit down to rest several times while cutting his lawn. He is hopeful that, with treatment, he will recover in the next year.
Hundreds of other site workers may not be so lucky.
Vincent Forras, a volunteer firefighter, is convinced that his life has been shortened by his exposure at the disaster site.
Within the first 24 hours of the recovery effort, he started gasping for breath and had to be rushed to a triage center. He's just undergone sinus surgery to treat the chronic infections and headaches he has suffered since Sept. 11. He still has frequent asthma attacks.
``I've never felt this sick and debilitated, and it's not getting any better,'' Mr. Forras said.
Samantha Marshall is a reporter for Crain's New York Business, a sister publication of Business Insurance.
CAPTION(S):
Rescue and cleanup workers at the site of the World Trade Center have suffered many health problems, including respiratory ailments, acid reflux and post-traumatic stress disorder.
