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The Village Voice has extensive September 11 coverage online, and one of the stories is about a movement from Stuyvesant High School students demanding health insurance after being exposed to the toxic dust when they returned to their school on Chambers Street. Lila Nordstrom, a senior during the 2001-2002 school year, sent a letter to officials:
"As victims of 9/11, and, especially, victims of the misinformation campaign, we served as ‘draftees' in the media campaign to reassure the American people. At the least, in recognition of the risks we undertook simply by attending school, we should be guaranteed health insurance for the rest of our lives."While it's pretty doubtful that Stuy students will get health insurance, as they join the thousands affected there, what's interesting is that when the Stuyvesant High School newspaper The Spectator printed its post September 11 issue (which was then distributed by the NY Times), there was an article called "An 'A' for Air Quality."She urged city and federal lawmakers to back a bill that would give Stuyvesant students the same coverage some first responders already receive: medical monitoring and, for those who develop pollution-related diseases, treatment.
You can read the issue here in PDF form, and the air quality issue is on page 8. And the Daily News has made Ground Zero air quality and first responders a pet issue.
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There's been alot of noise over the "air quality" issue recently. Now, I've worked a few blocks from WTC since 2000, was there on 9/11, went back to work on 9/18, and have been in the area ever since. I also ran my first NY Marathon in 2003, and have run dozens of races since then, with no discernable affects to my lung capacity.
My point being, if you have health/breathing problems and you worked on the Pile, fine, but don't assume you do just because you were in the area.
As Stuyvesant students, they are special, and therefore they deserve health insurance....
Fat Chance.
The air quality issue is very real. Five years ago, when critics who were brave enought to say something were being punished for telling the truth, it would have been OK to dismiss the issue the way Brooklyn Runner is seemingly doing. Alas, Brooklyn Runner, you are five years behind the game in your thinking. The overwhelming evidence points to real problems and REAL PEOPLE dying from lung-related and other ailments directly attributed by DOCTORS to the WTC disaster.
Alas Margo, you didn't read my post clearly enough. As I said, if you worked on the pile and you have lung related ailments, as many of the first responders do, then it's clear that the two are related.
If you worked or went to school in the vicinity, don't assume that you deserve free health care even if you don't have any breathing or lung related health problems.
What you implied in your comments was that because you did not get sick, then others (who also worked or went to school downtown) would most likely not be sick either. Unfortunately, many are, and if you talk to Stuyvesant parents (like I have) then you would know this. To make a blanket (and uninformed) statement like you did is irresponsible.
For further information (and not just opinion) on this, check out:
http://www.stuypa.org/environment/resources.htm
Statement of Marjorie J. Clarke, Ph.D., Scientist-in-Residence at Lehman College, and an adjunct professor at Lehman and Hunter College, City University of New York:
http://www.stuypa.org/environment/MarjorieClarkeStmt.doc
"the WTC collapses and fires actually constituted a brand new, combination type of air pollution source, with aspects of a (1) crematorium (most of the bodies will never be found because they were cremated, and their ashes scattered all over downtown and surrounding areas intermingled with the asbestos, fiberglass and concrete dusts), (2) a solid waste incinerator of unprecedented proportion (described below), (3) asbestos factory (but on a scale thousands of times the size and intensity of what would be found even in a badly operated factory) and (4) volcano (the initial cloud was similar to nuee ardente - hot gas and dust cloud - in some respects, depositing ash in a large area). There are many toxic, carcinogenic and irritating pollutants, standards need to be rewritten to assess the impacts of synergy - to protect the public health."
Well, yes. The reason the article is named that is because later tests (published in November and December) showed that the air quality was very polluted. Although we didn't return to the building until October (I graduated in '03), you could still "smell" Ground Zero for a few weeks after our return.
Another thing that has affected Stuy students, faculty, and staff - and probably not a decent chunk of the downtown community in the weeks and months after 9/11 - was the barge that was used to transport the building remains was loaded right outside of the entrance to our school. This is mentioned in the article.
as a stuy grad ('03), i'm pretty grossed out by this. any stuy graduate is fortunate to have a name on their high school diploma (and probably college degree) that will get them a job with health insurance. demanding a lifetime of health insurance for us (from whom, by the way?) looks like we're piggybacking on the legitimate attempts for medical coverage by first responders.
of course the air was unsafe, several students transferred because of it. i remember being concerned about it and ultimately choosing to stay at stuy regardless of the risk. maybe other students had less of a choice in the matter, but i guess i just don't understand who's supposed to pay for this, and what exactly anyone could have done differently.
The first comment is ridiculous. People who lived and worked in the area breathed in human remains and glass fragments for the next month. Yes, if you happened to have had strong lungs, for genetic or other reasons, you are probably OK. People with weak lungs would probably have gotten respiratory problems anyway. People with average lungs got respiratory problems they otherwise wouldn't have had. Being in the area increased your chances of long term medical problems. Why don't more people understand probability?
This is a serious health problem. Of course, if we had public and universal health coverage in this country, it wouldn't be an issue, the expanded version of Medicare would just have to deal with the problems as they came up. With our subsidized insurance for some people and not for others system, you have to determine which people in Lower Manhattan in September 2001 "deserve" coverage.
Turtle, what could have been done is this:
That the EPA Chief NOT have said the air was safe when she and her staff and our government did not believe that 100%
That first responders and other rescue workers working long hours be REQUIRED to wear respirators.
That a barge with TOXIC CHEMICALS not be floated near a high school or anywhere near a living thing.
Giving someone health insurance does not mean someone else is prevented from receiving it. Economies do not have to work that way.
Perhaps this is yet another reason to have health insurance for everyone, not just those in certain privileged groups.
The former Stuy student who is uninsured is worried that she might get sick because of 9/11 and be "screwed." The fact is her entire generation has been screwed, and I'm afraid it will be worse of my own children. A few of those affected by 9/11 may experience the consequences sooner, but all will sooner or later.
Margo:
I certainly don't believe that there are a magical number of insurance cards to be given out. I am just confused and concerned by how much better spent these students' energies would be if they chose to use their privelege and intellegince to fight for something that would benefit others (like, say, universal healthcare. even nyc-wide healthcare)