Fallout 9/11 Our World

throughout the night. It is time A site that became the definition

of terror. The destruction of the Twin Towers. An onslaught that

killed nearly 3,000 people. Ten years on the attack is not over.

The dust that overran the streets of lower Manhattan became a weapon.

The clouds contained particles of pulverised concrete. Asbestos. Lead

from 50,000 computers. Mercury from countless light bulbs. A poisonous

fall-out which is ruining thousands of lives. I came down to help, but

I never asked for this. I found him dead on the floor. There were many

responders and survivors with cancers. They are clearly

This man is one of those who breathed in that dust. He is seeing

He has coughing fits like this all the time. A police officer, he was

at Ground Zero for three months. First he was searching for

survivors. Then recovering remains. This is a regular check-up. The

dust has exacted a heavy price. He used to be highly active. An expert

in firearms. But his health has collapsed and he has now retired.

We first met him and his wife at their home in New Jersey five years

ago. I have scarring on my lungs. Some kind of lesions. Reactive

airway disease. The coughing was getting more often. It was so bad.

His face would turn purple, his eyes would start bulging. We did

not know if he would choke to death. Today, another battery of tests.

According to a recent study, emergency responders are suffering

from reduced breathing capacity and are not getting better. Inhale

quickly! Good. Uniformed staff who were on the front line. Police,

firemen, medical workers. These are the people the world saw battling

through the wreckage. Out of sight beyond the cameras are an army of

people toiling in the dust. Telecoms engineers, contractors,

cleaners. Right in the thick of it was Alex Sanchez. Down in the

crowds of Ground Zero. He works in 10 different buildings. On this job

he was given a respirator. This was the exception. Usually he had no

protection. His task was to get rid of dust. He did not realise what it

would do to him. When we go to the vent system, what I saw was

glistening particles. I still have dreams. I see all of these

particles. They are slowly coming A New York police helicopter filmed

the onslaught as it happened. A bird's-eye view of an unprecedented

atrocity. In the first few hours there was total confusion. Then the

enormity of the losses sank in. Only later was the dust seen as a

threat. What those police pilots who were flying up here saw, that

terrible day, must have been horrific. Flying and looking at

Manhattan it is hard to believe what was going on. What they saw

was not just the collapse of the dust. It was rising from the site

up to an altitude of the 2,500 feet. Slightly above the altitude we are

flying at now. The higher the dust went, the better. But a lot of it

descended over lower Manhattan. It was inhaled by the people working

at Ground Zero. The American government now believes that dust

triggered a chronic illnesses in thousands of people. As we see the

reconstruction under way, the Freedom Tower rising from the

surface of Manhattan, New Yorkers are contemplating a toxic legacy

The dust cleared long ago. The foundations of the Twin Towers have

been excavated. Two deep squares carved out to create a memorial

garden. The rise in new buildings is underway. Less obvious is the

cost in terms of health and the scale in terms surprising. The

latest official government figures show that just over 60,000 people

are registered as being at risk. Most of them are emergency workers.

Nearly 28,000 were given health checks in the past year. A number

We still have new patients. They have never been examined. They're

walking in the door every day. We have 100-200 per month. The word

dust itself sounds so innocent. Why was this mixture so hazardous and

why did it trigger such a massive impact? There is dust everywhere.

Those iconic structures came down to dust. All of this dust went into

every building and part of this area. This scene was found in a

home close to Ground Zero. Thousands of local residents were

vulnerable to the dust. The teddy bear was spotted by a scientist. He

was gathering samples. Back in his laboratory, he and others study the

dust. It was unlike anything they had seen before. A unique mix of

deadly materials. There was a lot of cement. There were glass fibres.

It is the result of 110 stories of glass. You had residuals of the

chemicals. Mixed in there was a very long list of toxins. Asbestos,

known to cause lung cancer. PCB. How do we know they are to blame?

At Mount Sinai Medical Centre they are seeing growing evidence. This

is the largest of the treatment programmes. It is where thousands

of patients are summoned. It is where a link between the dust and

their health looks more plausible. Early on I was not convinced. In a

very short period of time I was totally convinced. Absolutely and

totally convinced. Geoff and his wife leave the clinic for a break

across the street. For them it is obvious. The dust caused his

debilitating illness. I see it getting worse for him. It is

shorter periods of time between his infections. The periods of time are

shorter. It is getting worse each time. It is not stable. The

medication is stabilising. It can make life better. In some ways it

is getting worse. I would hope the people realise. There are people

getting sicker. At his home in Harlem, Alex Sanchez has the

medication and equipment needed to stay alive. He needs this device to

aid his breathing. To look at him medical records catalogue a long

list of chronic conditions. Alex is unable to work. Along with his ten-

year-old son he has become a campaigner. I came down to help

with the cleaning process. I never asked for this. I need to be

confined in my household. If there is any event regarding September

11th, I will be the first one there. Are overshadowing all of this is a

grim question. Could inhaling the dust to prove fatal? We travel

south out of New York City to the home of a family with bitter

experience of the dust. James Zadroga was a New York detective, a

popular figure, a non-smoker, the winner of numerous police awards,

and a father. He worked at Ground Zero for more than 400 hours but

soon his health declined dramatically and he became so ill

he had to move in with his parents. His father Joe is a retired police

chief. He made sure his son took his medication, but then one

morning five years ago, Jo went to wake his son. I waited until 9:30am

and he didn't come out so I went to check on him and I found him dead

on the floor. They took him away, and being he was so young, I even

said to the police I would like an autopsy done on him. They said, you

know, the coroner already said he is going to do an autopsy. He will

not sign the death certificate until he does an autopsy because he

was so young and he wanted to know why he passed away. The funeral in

January 2006 was a turning point. A pathologist concluded that James

Zadroga died of a rare lung disease caused by World Trade Center dust,

the first official link between the dust and a loss of life. The

finding was disputed, but it also galvanised to campaign for the new

law, the James Zadroga Act, named to help survivors. The train ride

to Washington DC. It is in the capital that key decisions were to

be made. With medical evidence mounting, New York politicians were

clamouring for a government response. Eventually, Congress

passed the James Zadroga Act, but only after a lot of squabbling and

cutting the planned budget in half. In January this year, President

Obama signed it into law. $4.7 billion over five years for

treatment and compensation. This file is the James Zadroga Act. Its

pages say who is entitled to help. Dr John Howard is the official

running the programme. interviewed the father of detective

James Zadroga, of whom a pathologist said his death was

you think any people have died as a

result of World Trade Center dust? I think undoubtedly there are

people who have succumbed in the interval between 9/11 and now.

Given the severity of some of the conditions people are suffering

from, do you think it is plausible that some people will die of their

exposure? Yes, I think it is plausible. Some

of these exposures and some of the conditions - for instance, the lung

condition interstitial fibrosis, where the lung tissue is scarred

and you lose capacity to exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide - and

essentially your lungs is forming a scar inside so you have less

ability to breathe. That can result in not only failure of the lungs

and heart failure, but also other conditions can result from that so

it is a snowball effect. Eventually you could succumb to that condition,

so yes, people could die of many of these conditions we have seen

associated with the exposures. So 10 years on, there is now

finally official recognition of the threat, but the fact it has taken

so long is a source of bitterness and there is a lingering suspicion

that the risks of the dust were played down at the time. Just one

week after the attacks, the New York Stock Exchange reopened. A

potent symbol of recovery. Office workers, school children and

residents were urged to return, but was this too soon? The dust was

still everywhere. Scientists carried out checks around Ground

Zero, and the head of the Environmental Protection Agency

declared the air safe to breathe. Except for one time, we have not

seen any readings that indicated a health hazard. Christine Todd

Whitman has always stood by that statement, saying the findings on

air quality were correct. We asked for an interview but she declined.

So we turned to one of to one ofr advisers at Rutgers University. We

first spoke to him five years ago and he defended her. In the first

few days the fires went down and became smouldering rather than

large fires. The dust had settled, some had been washed away. The

issue of indoor environment was not on the table at that time, maybe it

should have been. Given that context, she did the best she could.

So what does he say now? Were the authorities ignoring the dangers to

reopening Manhattan? He blames others for misunderstanding what

she was saying. Based upon the asbestos results, the area around

Ground Zero was basically safe except for the pile. To be quite

frank, the EPA did say there are things we don't know about so I

didn't find any fault with what she said, so I blame the media, I blame

the officials and the government for trying to put ores are teased

much too quickly. Hopefully we learn something. As a scientist,

you know what is in the dust. Would you have been happy to have

returned to an apartment at Ground Zero within a week? With a

respirator, absolutely. Without one, would you have gone? No, I would

not. A vision of optimism in the city back on its feet, but among

those who work on the rubble, a new fear is emerging that the dust

didn't only lead to the illnesses we are seeing now, it is also

causing cancer and that is one reason why there is a legal battle

for compensation. I think we will be seeing you diseases develop up

to 30 years from now, and it will be it a long period where more and

more people get sick over the course of time. This is just the

beginning. This is not 10 years out the end. We will be facing people

getting sick with 9/11 related illnesses for another 20 years at

least. When you come to New York and hear the words lawyer and

compensation committee would be forgiven for being cynical and

thinking this is the most litigious city on the planet, but when you

hear one of America's top health officials saying he thinks it is

likely more people will die because of the dust that billowed right

over here 10 years ago, you realise this is a serious and growing

problem. The question of the health impact of 9/11 are not just

relevant on this, the 10th anniversary, they will be relevant

Overlooking Manhattan, a memorial to James Zadroga and a generation

born after 9/11. The attack will not be forgotten, because for so

many it is not over. I don't think people realise that the attacks of

9/11 have not stopped because they left as a weapon this dust, the