Ground Zero Team Sues Over Illness

Ground Zero Team Sues Over Illness


8/14/04
Hundreds of people who worked on the World Trade Centre clean-up have filed a class-action lawsuit alleging companies did little to protect workers from dust, asbestos and other toxins in the air.
The legal battle targets the leaseholder of the New York towers and those who supervised the job, including the subsidiary of an Australian company.
The lawsuit was filed in a US federal court on Friday and made public today.
It has been brought against Silverstein Properties and the four construction companies hired to oversee the removal of 1.5 million tonnes of debris after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks.
They include Bovis Lend Lease, a unit of Australian real estate firm Lend Lease.
David Worby, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said he was seeking billions of dollars in compensation for victims.
The lawsuit also asks for the establishment of a system to track all those who were exposed for the next 20 years.
It alleges that many workers did not have access to protective gear, and those who did were not taught how to wear it properly.
Some of the plaintiffs suffer from afflictions ranging from tumours to heartburn.
Others have joined the action because they fear they risk developing cancer in the future.
Mr Worby said: "The tragic reality is that so many of the brave heroes who worked so tirelessly and unselfishly are becoming a second wave of casualties of this horrific attack, and we're only seeing the tip of the iceberg."
The companies involved said they had not seen the complaint and had no immediate comment.
The class-action case, with about 800 plaintiffs, was filed on the last day before a federal three-year statute of limitations expired for lawsuits related to the terrorist attack.
The US Government is already funding six health screening programs to monitor ground zero workers, but none are funded beyond 2009.
Last week, the federal Centres for Disease Control and Prevention released a study showing that many recovery workers suffered from respiratory problems long after the clean-up concluded, and that some were still battling ailments.
Problems identified included asthma, sinusitis, constant coughing and stuffy nose, facial pains, chest tightness, wheezing and shortness of breath.
Proper respiratory gear would have allowed the workers to block out smoke, dust, diesel exhaust, pulverised cement, glass fibres, asbestos and other chemicals and could have prevented throat and lung diseases, according to the CDC study.
It found that only about one in five of the workers wore respirators while they worked at the site.
The three companies in the clean-up with Bovis Lend Lease were Turner Construction, AMEC Construction and Tully Construction.
According to AMEC's website, the company stationed safety experts on site during the clean-up and provided respirators, hard hats and safety goggles to workers.