This is still a difficult subject for me to write about, but on this, the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorists attacks on America, someone needs to set the stage correctly about the many mysterious diseases that doctors are seeing in workers, many years after the twin towers in New York City collapsed. |
Donald Berry is a biostatistician at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX. He and others have advised against reporting that about 50 types of cancer is now being seen in the emergency workers responding to the attack on 9/11/01. Remember, biostatisticians aren’t physicians and it is the physicians who are seeing all of these new respiratory diseases and cancer cases in those who found themselves working in or around the twin tower buildings as they collapsed. Given our ignorance about the cause of cancer, I don’t know why all of this confusion evens exists, except, perhaps because of “turf” or “semantics.” As you know, I have been rather outspoken that fungal byproducts called “mycotoxins” are known to cause cancer, so based on that one fact, I have formed my own opinion on this issue. Currently, at least 20,000 workers are being treated for respiratory and cancer-type illnesses since their exposure. Last week, the New York City Fire Department alone-added 9 more names to the 55 names already etched on the wall honoring members who have died of illnesses related to Ground Zero rescue and recovery work. One demolition expert who lost part of one leg during the recovery efforts, had this to say; “2,751 lives lost that day. That’s sad, but they didn’t suffer long. These first responders have been slowly dying for 11 years.” In the interest of brevity, I won’t bore you with the statistics, but the numbers are proving that a link exists between “something they were exposed to” and an increase risk of diseases, including cancer, 11 years later. Here is a good article: http://www.medpagetoday.com/HematologyOncology/OtherCancers/28324 With the building collapse, came miles of broken water pipes and days later, trillions of mold spores now trying to break down everything from wood to metal in the debris. Clean up included stagnant water-tons of it. Clean up crews were exposed to many toxins that day from jet fuel to burning plastic, yet not one scientific report that I have seen, acknowledges that those workers were also exposed to mold. Of course, in the past decade, researchers have found that many breathing disorders from asthma to sinusitis are actually caused by mold. For some reason, these same researchers have forgotten that our bravest were filmed during the clean up efforts and they fulfilled all three prerequisites that are mandatory for mold to injure any human being. 1. Toxic mold must be present 2. Exposure must include inhalation 3. Mold does not injure or kill immediately and many take years to cause illness. As the old Peter, Paul and Mary song asked…”when will they ever learn?” {flike} |