Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, U.S Rep. Carolyn Maloney, NY State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, City Council Member Margaret Chin, local residents, first responders and organized labor announcing the formation of a committee to establish a monument to 9/11 responders and survivors sickened and dying from their exposure to Ground Zero toxins. (Photos: Terese Loeb Kreuzer)

The people who died on 9/11 have not been forgotten. Their names are engraved around the memorial pools on the footprints of the Twin Towers where they died. But thousands of people have sickened and in many cases, died, since Sept. 11, 2001 because of the toxins generated by the attack. Their struggles and those of their survivors have only been noted in passing.

Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer decided to do something about that. She is co-chair with Mario Cilento, president of the New York State AFL-CIO, of a committee to establish a monument to 9/11 responders and survivors. The committee, which includes elected officials, labor leaders and community residents, announced its plans today.

"From the beginning, those who came to help or those who came back to their homes began to suffer from symptoms brought on by their proximity to Ground Zero," said Brewer.  "Too many Americans do not realize that there are thousands still suffering and in some cases, dying, from the attacks that day. So today, we are here to announce the formation of an effort to remember and honor the thousands who are living with the illnesses and toxins that they breathed in at Ground Zero and the many who died from their illnesses with a monument here in Lower Manhattan, near Ground Zero."

 

She said that the committee would find a location, select a design and find the funding to pay for "a simple, elegant monument" so that people will always be reminded of "what the word 'honorable' means in practice, day to day."

 

U.S. Congressman Jerrold Nadler, a member of the committee, said, "In the years since 9/11, many of us here have watched our friends, our families, our colleagues and our neighbors continue to struggle with the aftermath of that day. For thousands who lived through 9/11, the effects of that day did not end when the towers fell nor even when the rest of the recovery efforts were completed at Ground Zero."

 

He said that after 9/11, the air quality in Lower Manhattan was worse than during the Kuwaiti oil fire. Responders, community residents, area students and workers breathed those fumes for months. 

 

"Thousands have since become ill or died as a result of exposure to 9/11 toxins," he said, "including now, increasingly from cancers."

 

Nadler said that it took 10 years to get the Zadroga Bill passed. It provided health care for those sickened by 9/11. A Victim Compensation Fund allowed those affected to file claims for economic losses due to physical harm or death caused by the September 11 attack.    

 

"Now we are beginning to work for the bill's reauthorization in 2016," said Nadler. "We cannot and will not stop fighting for those who are still suffering as a result of 9/11."

 

U.S. Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney.

U.S. Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, who fought with Nadler for the passage of the Zadroga Act, said that around 3,000 people had died on 9/11, but that since then, thousands and thousands more have died because of illnesses generated by exposure to Ground Zero toxins. Among others, she said that 77 firefighters have died since then and that 500 more are sick.  

 

"We have a moral obligation to those who fell ill in the days and months after the attack, to take care of them and to support them," said New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.

 

John Feal.

 

 

He said that if he had his way, the monument would be built as close to Ground Zero as possible.

 

 

Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer and New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. (Photo: Terese Loeb Kreuzer)