By Becca Tucker

It scans like the harmful side effects warning at the end of a prescription drug commercial: Sinus, nasal and postnasal congestion; heartburn, hoarseness, and throat irritation, shortness of breath and wheezing; chronic cough; postnasal drip syndrome asthma; gastroesophageal reflux disease; interstitial lung disease; chronic bronchitis, pulmonary eosinophilic infilitrates; post-traumatic stress disorder; depression and generalized anxiety disorder.

But there was no advanced warning for the people who lived and worked in the debris, dust, smoke and fumes that trailed the World Trade Center attack. This catalogue of maladies comes from a guide released last year by the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, to help clinicians identify and treat New Yorkers with disaster-associated physical and mental health conditions.

As of May, 21,000 rescue workers and volunteers at Ground Zero had developed a physical or mental disorder as a result of exposure, according to the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health. Although proving that health problems are directly related to the attack can prove difficult, 9/11 workers are technically eligible for workers’ compensation, and will remain eligible indefinitely, even if they are currently healthy, provided they register with the New York State Workers’ Compensation Board by the twice-extended deadline of August 13, 2008.

But residents of the area who weren’t on the Ground Zero roster are assured no such coverage. A class-action lawsuit against the EPA on behalf of residents, students and office workers exposed to hazardous substances was struck down in April.

So there’s no compensation for the family of Etta Sanders, a freelance writer and mother of two who lived near the World Trade Center and died of metastatic lung cancer this summer. She believed her cancer grew as a result of breathing the dusty, smoky air that hung about Ground Zero long after the Environmental Protection Agency had deemed it safe for residents to return. 

Sanders, in parting, feared her case would turn out to be a harbinger of things to come, but for now, Downtown residents who still have their health are going about their lives with fingers crossed. “It’s not my sense that health concerns are uppermost on the minds of most Downtown residents,” says Carl Glassman, Sanders’ editor at the Tribeca Trib, “though I’m sure many of us feel uncertain, at least, about the long-term consequences of exposure to the air after September 11.”


The following opinion piece was written by Etta Sanders shortly before her death and was originally published by the Tribeca Trib this summer.

I believe I am the victim of the lies of my government. I live a short distance from the World Trade Center site. Ten days after the Sept. 11 attacks, my husband, our twin boys who had turned 3 years old on Sept. 8, and I moved back into our home.

For months, like so many of our neighbors, we worried about the air, kept our windows closed, ran air filters day and night, took the children out of the neighborhood to play outdoors and tried to believe what we were told—that the air was safe.
Two years ago I was diagnosed with stage IV, metastatic lung cancer. Inoperable. Incurable. Since then I have responded well to a series of treatments, chemotherapy and recently approved pills. I have been able to maintain a normal life—working, traveling, caring for my family. My condition has now worsened and the possible treatment options are running out.

I strongly believe my cancer is related to exposure to World Trade Center dust and smoke. If the government had said we’re not sure about the safety of the air and it would be prudent for residents to stay away, I don’t think I would have this cancer.
Now I will not see my beautiful boys grow up. No high school or college graduations, school trips, summer vacations, no weddings, no grandchildren. Mom won’t be there to cheer at piano recitals or ballgames. Mom won’t be there to comfort them after a hard day or a bad dream. I won’t grow old with my beloved husband, who has cared for all of us with remarkable strength. We have had almost 30 fabulous years together. I was hoping for 50 or 60.

The truth is that I have had a wonderful and very lucky life, except for this bit here at the end.

I dearly hope that I am in a small minority of people who were so gravely harmed by the aftermath of the WTC attacks, but I fear otherwise. Whether the numbers are large or small, the U.S. government is culpable for that harm and there must be compensation for all victims and their families.

Frankly, I don’t know how Christine Todd Whitman lives with herself.

At a recent community board committee meeting, there was a presentation by someone from the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation. At the end, a board member asked if there would be room on the wall of victims’ names for those who died after the attacks from toxic exposures (a few days later the first such victim was added). It was a chilling thought. There will be more names.

But I think we need a separate wall for those whose deaths were not caused by a direct act of terrorism, but by the actions of a cavalier government.