An article published this week in The Chief Leader reports that Dr. Michael Crane, medical director of the WTC Health Program Clinical Center of Excellence at Mount Sinai and the Selikoff Centers for Occupational Health at The Mount Sinai Hospital is concerned that a large number of people who worked and lived in the exposure zone have yet to be screened for many illnesses, from cancer to respiratory illnesses, associated with the attacks.
“Certainly we know very well by the studies from the World Trade Center Registry, which combine the population both of responders and survivors, that the folks who went to work opened their windows, sat in rooms that had air-conditioning ducts full of dust, went to school, had significant exposures and those exposures are adding up to ongoing illness…And what that has come to mean to us is that there will be disease. So those officers, Teachers, those Manhattan Community College students, those students at Stuyvesant High School, all of these folks are at risk for illness based on what we have learned.”
Dr. Crane is also worried that those that have been screened have had their disability-pension applications rejected too quickly. New York city and state retirement systems have been denying more 9/11 related claims than are being approved. He is concerned for his patients because not only are they ill, but are now suffering the added stress of having to deal with extra bureaucracy in order to receive what they are entitled to.
“The last thing we want to do for people that have had exposure to the World Trade Center toxins is to increase their anxieties about anything,
We try and tell folks to take things one day at a time and take care of their issues and that we can help and support them…If, in fact, the various institutional situations they run into increase those tensions, it is something else we have to deal with, and the people have to deal with.”
Many of Dr. Crane’s patients have hired attorneys to help sort through and deal with all the paperwork and the many issues that arise throughout the disability claims and pension system process.
Call us today to get the help you need as you navigate through this process.
Noah Kushlefsky and the VCF team at Kreindler & Kreindler are specialists in helping victims determine their eligibility and acquire a qualified diagnosis if necessary.
