New York Times article on FEMA performance review

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

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ir of Infirmity City struggles to contend with widespread WTC cough First of two stories by Dr. Kerry Kelly, the New York Satellite images shot by NASA Even mild forms of the cough can se- Fire Department’s chief medical offic- throughout Sept. 11, 2001, depict the verely aggravate existing conditions. By. Laurie Garrett ts characterized by a reduced plume of dust, toxins and debris drift- Anne, 33, a Broadway actress who STAFF WHITER luug Capacity and a hyper-reactivity ing directly from Ground Zero south- asked that her last name not be used Physicians in the city have made of the airways to inhaled particles, eastward, blanketing a portion of for fear of endangering her roles in mu- it clear: The malady now officially bacteria and viruses. The cough is Brooklyn. Hospitals there have re^rt- sical theater, was home in Park Slope called World Trade Center cough is dry and nonproductive and can leave ed increases in respiratory complaints, on Sept. 11. Three years ago, she was like nothing they’ve ever seen, and the sufferer gasping for air. In Brooklyn Heights, Dr. Tucker diagnosed with a mild case of asthma, hundreds — perhaps thousands — of As physicians sought to pin down Woods was miming the emergency which, she said, had been controlled people are experiencing it. the ailment’s causes, the U.S. Environ- room of Long Island College Hospital on with the aerosol medication albuterol. The extent of this lung disease is not mental Protection Agency was monitor- Sept. 11 when, he recalls, the staffhan- On the morning after the terrorist at- known, and for a combination of bu- ing Ground Zero and lower Manhattan dl^ a “huge influx” of respiratory tack, she awoke “feeling my chest was reaucratic reasons, the extent of the for chemicals and substances that vio- cases. “And I personally this year have tight, sort of heavy. So I stood up to human health impact may be under- late the Clean Air Act. It has become seen a real increase in asthma com- cross the room and get my albuterol, stated. Moreover, cleanup efforts may clear, though, that the cough’s causes plaints and chronic bronchitis,” Woods and I passed out” She hobbled to her be inappropriately focus^ on a single have little if anything to do with those said. “It’s World Trade Center cough; ab- neighborhood emergency room for element of the debris: asbestos. substances. Rather, the culprit ap- solutely new cases. And it's also a wors- ------------------------------------------------ The ailment, as described recently pears to be microscopic bits of glass. ening of old, chronic respiratory cases.” See AILMENT on A23

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