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NYC to open WTC-related health center

BY MELANIE LEFKOWITZ | Newsday Staff Writer

September 6, 2006

As evidence of long-term health effects from World Trade Center exposure continues to mount, Mayor Michael Bloomberg Tuesday announced efforts to ramp up the city's response to 9/11-related ailments, including expansion of the Health Department unit monitoring those affected.

The new initiative will provide $21.6 million over five years to increase the staff of the Health Department's World Trade Center unit from seven full-time staff members to 20. In addition, a $16-million unit called the WTC Environmental Health Center will be created at Bellevue Hospital Center, dedicated to serving those with suspected 9/11-related health issues.

The city also will lobby the federal government to reopen the Victim Compensation Fund for those whose symptoms did not appear before the 2003 deadline, Bloomberg said.

"We expect the federal government to shoulder its responsibilities and we hope very much that it will," he said. "But we are not waiting for Washington or anyone else to do for us what we can and must do ourselves."

The city's announcement came as reports of 9/11-related respiratory and other ailments increase, more studies find links between World Trade Center exposure and health effects, and workers push for more aid and benefits. Also Tuesday, a Mount Sinai Medical Center study found that seven out of 10 Ground Zero workers suffered abnormal damage to their lungs -- a finding the mayor cast some doubt on while acknowledging that more and more research has shown a link between exposure and illness.

Asked why it took five years to create the initiatives, Bloomberg said they are an expansion of work that has been going on since the days immediately following the attacks.

"A lot of these programs were started back when, and I think it's just an appropriate time to step back and take a look and see what else we can do," he said. "A lot of the data is just starting to come in, in terms of what damage or symptoms that people have."

Bloomberg said it is impossible to say how many people could come forward for help with 9/11-related illnesses, in part because some who were affected may not yet know it. About 71,000 people have signed up for the Health Department's World Trade Center registry, which is monitoring long-term effects of those exposed. The new center at Bellevue, officials said, would primarily serve those who don't have other means of medical support.

"What this allows is for specialty care for patients who aren't recovering based on standard treatment for their asthma or their coughs," Deputy Health Commissioner Lorna Thorpe said.