All September 11, in New York city -and the rest of US - is to renew the messages about the biggest attack in the history of the country. "We will never forget", they pray to the flags and posters in remembrance of the tragedy. The president of the U.S., Donald Trump, used today the formula to remember the episode in her 18th anniversary, a day that commemorated the victims in a speech at the Pentagon.
those Who remember all the days that sunny morning of the end of the summer are family members of those who died in the attacks. But so do other victims, the tens of thousands of people who suffer from diseases related to the attack on and that make the bill of the attack on the Twin Towers to grow every year.
it Is firefighters, police officers, emergency personnel, and even neighbors living, working or studying in the area and were exposed to the toxic dust left by the skyscraper after its collapse. The South of Manhattan became a dump, carpeted by a layer of metal powder that aspired for weeks and months while looking for the remains of survivors, recovered the place or simply trying to rebuild their lives.
About 40,000 people suffer from illnesses related to the 11-S, many of them respiratory ailments and mental problems, according to data from the World Trade Center Health Program the hospital complex at Mount Sinai. Among them there are about ten thousand people with different types of cancers related to exposure to toxins. Each month recorded between 50 and 80 new cases, in a situation that could worsen with the passing of the years.
One of the greatest fears is the occurrence of more cases of lung cancer. Mesothelioma, for example, that results from the inhalation of asbestos it can take between thirty and forty years to manifest themselves. Other lung cancers do not appear until twenty years after contact with the toxic dust. So far, we have treated about 700 cases of lung cancer among people exposed to the middens of the 11-S, but the specialists believe that the number will grow with the passage of the years.
Lack of supportMany of those affected have had to fight for them to be taken into account. Despite the boasting of memory, and patriotism when they arrive, the anniversaries, those affected -many of them unsung heroes who rushed immediately to the scene of the tragedy and who worked in the toxic dust, despite the risks - have not always enjoyed the support of the authorities for the treatment of diseases.
The last chapter of this fight was last June, when the association of the emergency personnel who went to the Twin Towers fought for the expansion of the Fund Compensation to the Victims of September 11. The fund, created by the U.S. Congress to assist the affected people and closed in 2003. When you started to feel the barrage of diseases related to the dust of the towers, was recovered to compensate the volunteers and to those who worked, lived or studied in the area affected, in the South of Manhattan.
In 2015, the fund will be extended five years, until December 2020, but last February, its operators acknowledged that the requests for the treatment of diseases forced to run out of money much before you expected.
The U.S. Congress put obstacles to continue funding of the fund. Some legislators claimed that it was something that should occupy the state of New York. The representatives of the affected fought in August to get a new extension. Among them was Luis Alvarez, a police detective removed that had exposure to the toxins, and that at the time of talking to the legislative commission in charge of the enlargement of the fund carried 68 rounds of chemotherapy. "I'm not going to be stopped, while my friends with cancer by the 11-S, like me, were valued less than anyone," snapped the congressmen.
Alvarez and the rest of the representatives were accompanied by e l popular comedian Jon Stewart, , which accused the Congress of "ignoring" the people who came to rescue their compatriots. "No american should face financial ruin because of health issues," he said about the high costs of health care, especially in diseases such as cancer. "Without a doubt, those who were the 11-S would not have to choose between to live or have a place to live."
Stewart shamed the lawmakers for the slow pace in approving an extension of the phone. "They were there in five seconds, and did their job," he said of the emergency personnel. "With courage, tenacity, humility. Eighteen years later, you have to make yours"; claimed to legislators.
Finally, Congress extended the fund until October, 2089 . A period in which it is expected that the trickle of cancer make it impossible to forget the tragedy of the Twin Towers. Alvarez died at the end of June, a few days after, to require the Congress to compensate victims like him.
Date Of Update: 12 September 2019, 01:00
