reality-based educator

Deaths linked to the toxic environmental conditions surrounding Ground Zero in the aftermath of 9/11 have started:

A cop dies & kin
blame 9/11 debris
By ROBERT F. MOORE
DAILY NEWS POLICE BUREAU
Saturday, January 7th, 2006

A retired NYPD detective, who worked more than 450 hours at Ground Zero, died Thursday from brain and respiratory complications that his family insists were linked to the World Trade Center cleanup.

While autopsy results are pending, union officials maintain James Zadroga's death is the first post-9/11 death of a city officer linked to hazardous material from Ground Zero.

"Our detective is a hero," said Mike Palladino, president of the Detectives' Endowment Association. "He had a disregard for his own health and life and tried to save others."

In a chilling letter Zadroga wrote about a year after the terror attacks, he described his deteriorating health - including a constant cough and sore throat.

"No one cares at the job," he wrote. "They tell me I'm fine, go back to work. But, truthfully, I haven't felt this bad in my life.... And what thanks do I get now that I'm sick?"

NYPD officials said Zadroga, 34, was given a tax-free disability pension of three-quarters pay in 2004. His pension was the result of a pulmonary disease related to 9/11, a police official said.

After leaving the NYPD, Zadroga was responsible for his own medical bills.

"The department afforded the detective every medical option available," said NYPD Chief Michael Collins, a department spokesman.

Still, Zadroga's parents said he left behind $50,000 in medical bills. They also said neither the city nor the NYPD has ever acknowledged to them that their son's illness was tied to Ground Zero.

"They didn't treat him well," said his father, Joseph Zadroga, a retired police chief in North Arlington, N.J.

James Zadroga is survived by his 4-year-old daughter, Tylerann, who was her daddy's little nurse. She told him when his head felt warm and knew from his dependence on oxygen when he wasn't doing well, relatives said.

"I thought Daddy was only sleeping," she told her grandmother, Linda Zadroga, after her father's death.

Zadroga died at his parents' home in Little Egg Harbor, N.J. A funeral mass will be held at 10 a.m. Tuesday in North Arlington. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly has authorized an NYPD honor guard to attend the service.

Zadroga was inside 7 World Trade Center as it began to collapse on 9/11. He returned to the site for weeks to help search for victims' remains.

Palladino said he feared the deaths of more emergency workers could follow.

"We're just starting to learn now the long-term effects on first responders," he said.

Mayor Bloomberg, Mayor Giuiliani, Governor Pataki, Preznit Bush and all the other politicians who throw themselves in front of every photo-op with 9/11 first responders should be ashamed of themselves for ignoring the health and well-being of those who were poisoned by the toxic conditions down at Ground Zero during 9/11 rescue operations and clean-up.

Mayor Giuliani and Preznit Bush are especially culpable for the people who die as a result of being exposed to toxins down at Ground Zero. Bush's administration declared the area surrounding Ground Zero "safe" just days after the buildings collapsed while the rubble was still burning and sending a noxious smell of death and rot across the city and Giuliani cared more about reopening Wall Street than he did the health of those who would be working down in Lower Manhattan.

But of course the fuckers who are partially responsible for the deaths of heroes like Detective Zadroga will not take personal responsibility for the tragedies. Instead they will show up for the photo ops around September 11th every year and they will run the 9/11 "Tough on Terrorism" commercials every time they are running for reelection and they will ignore the deaths of first responders like Detective Zadroga who leaves behind a four-year old daughter and $50,000 in medical bills.

Some way to treat a hero.

Betcha Giuliani won't be treated that way if the sonuvabitch's prostate cancer comes back.

Fuckers.

UPDATE: The Associated Press picks up the story about the death of Detective Zadroga and adds this:

A majority of residents and ground zero workers tracked by several different registries monitoring the participants’ health have reported worsening respiratory problems in the years since the attacks.

Meaning lots more funerals in the future.