Surviving New Yorkers have finally won an eleven-year battle with the federal government following a ruling to cover a range of cancers, including mesothelioma, under a compensation Act designed for victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks.
When the twin towers collapsed after two planes were hijacked and flown into them, a giant toxic cloud of dust was released into the air and covered parts of Manhattan for weeks. The dust contained chemicals such as lead and asbestos, the known carcinogen that causes asbestos related diseases such as asbestosis, asbestos related pleural disease, pleural plaques, pleural thickening, asbestos pleuritis and the cancer mesothelioma.
As a result, many workers at ground zero and also local residents were exposed to the asbestos dust, with 20,000 residents currently receiving medical treatment and 40,000 being monitored by medical authorities for resulting conditions such as mesothelioma.
The new regime, announced a day before the 11th anniversary of the attacks, will recognize the cancer mesothelioma and approximately 50 other cancers as being eligible for compensation from a $2.8 billion fund that was approved in 2010.
However, the ruling is only bittersweet, as because of the long latency period between exposure to asbestos and the development of an asbestos related disease such as mesothelioma, the compensation fund may run out before many mesothelioma compensation claims are filed. Australia knows only too well the pain of New Yorkers who have been exposed to asbestos given so many Australians have suffered asbestos conditions such as mesothelioma.
