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Press Release
For Immediate Release
May 25, 2007 |
Contact: Tom Quaadman (Fossella), 202-225-3371
Joe Soldevere (Maloney), 646-831-1649 |
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Reps. Maloney and Fossella Urge the City to Investigate All 9/11 Responder Deaths |
| Lawmakers Also Call for Passage of Federal Legislation to Reopen the Victim Compensation Fund & Provide Health Care and Monitoring for 9/11 Sick/Injured |
New York, NY – Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-NY14) and Congressman Vito Fossella (R-NY13) today called on the City of New York to examine the medical evidence in the deaths of Ground Zero responders who lived outside of the City to determine if their deaths can be definitively linked to exposure to WTC dust. In a letter today to the City’s Medical Examiner (click here for a copy of the letter), Dr. Charles Hirsch, Fossella, Maloney and Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY8) also called on Dr. Hirsch to meet with elected officials and family members to discuss the procedures he will be putting in place for any new cases he will review and how best to publicize the review process so that family members can access it.
Fossella said, “The case of Ms. Dunn-Jones proves that it’s essential for new evidence to be reviewed to determine what role, if any, Ground Zero air played in the passing of these heroes. We would like to thank the Medical Examiner for agreeing to review other similar cases if asked to. Ms. Dunn-Jones’s case should also serve as an example to other jurisdictions for a potential reexamination of these tragic deaths. We have a responsibility to the families of the victims to know whether their deaths were caused fully or in part by breathing the air over Ground Zero.”
“This week, the City of New York finally confirmed something we've known in our hearts for more than a year: that the death toll from 9/11 is still growing,” said Maloney. “Americans who lived outside of New York City have died from illnesses caused by 9/11. If a person dies as a result of the Trade Center attacks, then that death is a homicide in the City of New York and we believe the Medical Examiner has the duty to investigate it, no matter where the person lived at the time of their death.”
“Felicia Dunn-Jones was the only person who received a death benefit from the Victim Compensation Fund for an illness caused by 9/11 –but Felicia was not the only one who's died from such an illness,” Maloney added. “We need to reopen the Fund to give proper financial relief to all the 9/11 heroes who died too young, and to the thousands of Americans who are sick from 9/11 and are struggling to get by as a result.”
The lawmakers’ request comes two days after Dr. Hirsch reclassified the death of Felicia Dunn-Jones as a homicide and linked it to her exposure to toxins released by the collapse of the World Trade Center towers (click here for a copy of the Medical Examiner’s letter). Dunn-Jones, a 42 year-old attorney for the U.S. Department of Education, was trapped in the dust cloud caused by the collapse of the first World Trade Center tower. She died four months later of sarcoidosis, a rare and debilitating condition that attacks the lungs and other vital organs.To date, the City has officially linked only Ms. Dunn-Jones’s death to Ground Zero toxins.
In October 2006, Maloney and Fossella wrote to Dr. Hirsch (click here for a copy of the Reps.’ 10/06 letter) urging him to include Dunn-Jones on the City’s official list of 9/11 victims. In response, Dr. Hirsch wrote (click here for a copy of Dr. Hirsch’s response) that despite the VCF’s determination, his office could not at that time link Felicia’s death to WTC dust “with certainty beyond a reasonable doubt.”Fossella and Maloney also called on Congress to pass their legislation, the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, which would provide both health care and compensation for those who are sick or injured as a result of the 9/11 attacks. The bill would:
- Reopen the federal Victim Compensation Fund (VCF) for sick and injured 9/11 responders and lower Manhattan residents, workers and schoolchildren;
- Extend long-term medical monitoring to everyone exposed to Ground Zero toxins, and
- Provided federally-funded health care for anyone who is sick as a result of the attacks.
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