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Air Today . . . Gone Tomorrow Article
Sick lungs, strong proof
Post-9/11 air wasn't safe
By Juan Gonzalez, New York Daily News,
June 22, 2004
After the hijacked planes struck the twin towers on 9/11, Julio Roig was among thousands
of downtown workers who poured into the narrow streets from nearby buildings to watch the
raging fires.
Like many on that terrible day, Roig, a project manager for an engineering consulting
firm, was soon caught in the ferocious dust storm unleashed by the collapse of the first
tower.
Nearly three years later, Roig suffers from granulomatous pulmonary disease, a severe
scarring of the lung. The disease has so reduced his breathing capacity that his
pulmonologist recently advised him he may need a lung transplant.
Roig, however, is one of the few people to demonstrate a direct link between his illness
and toxic dust from Ground Zero.
His doctor, Benjamin Safirstein, a pulmonologist at Mount Sinai Medical Center, concluded
in a peer-reviewed scientific article published in Chest Journal in January 2003 that
"exposure to dust at the WTC accounted for his illness."
Safirstein was not simply guessing.
Roig, then 37, had returned to work in lower Manhattan on Oct. 3, and within two weeks he
was suffering from shortness of breath, wheezing, severe cough and constant body aches.
In November 2001, chest X-rays and a CAT scan revealed numerous abnormal nodules in Roig's
lungs, but none of the doctors he initially consulted could explain their origin. A chest
X-ray taken ayear earlier during a regular checkup had detected no problems.
Roig eventually went to Safirstein, who advised him that only a lung biopsy could explain
the source of the problem. Safirstein proceeded to collapse Roig's lungs and cut through
his back to remove tissue samples.
Safirstein then reported that an electron microscopy scan of the tissue and other tests
had revealed "large quantities of silicates" in Roig's lungs - the kind of
silicates found in World Trade Center dust.
"The analysis came out pretty negative," Safirstein said last week. "We
confirmed these strange granuloma," a form of pulmonary fibrosis.
Roig's worst symptoms were reduced substantially with months of steroid treatments, but
the scarring of his lungs remains. Meanwhile, his breathing capacity has steadily
worsened.
"He's declined about 20% over the past three years," Safirstein said. "If
he continues to decline, then we have a serious concern."
And Roig may not be the only downtown worker or resident to suffer long-term health
problems from WTC dust.
"All bets are off," Safirstein said. "We may not find the answers for years
to come. These environmental disasters give us more information than any bench research
can."
As for Roig, he's furious that federal and city officials advised New Yorkers that
downtown's air was safe to breathe after 9/11.
"They should have declared the whole area a Superfund site and cleaned it up
completely," he said.
Meanwhile, he's still battling with the federal government for adequate compensation.
After applying for help from acompensation board set up by Congress, he was offered less
than $50,000 for pain and suffering and is appealing the decision.
If he ends up needing a lung transplant because of that terrible day, Roig figures, his
government owes him and his family something more.
All contents © 2004 Daily News, L.P.
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