Three 9/11 heroes die of cancer in 5 days

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 18:57:33 GMT

http://www.presstv.com/detail.aspx?id=108595&sectionid=3510203

Doctors have not yet linked any of the illnesses to the Ground Zero site, but families of the deceased survivors feel differently.

A firefighter and two cops who worked at Ground Zero in the days and weeks after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, have died of cancer in a five-day period, a report says.

A startling report by the New York Daily News highlights the cancer-related deaths of the firefighter and two cops.

Family members and advocates blame the terminal illnesses on toxins released into the air after the twin towers collapsed.

“Everybody is denying that this stuff is connected to 9/11, but it is,” the daily quoted Stephen Grossman, whose son Robert, a police officer in Harlem who worked at Ground Zero for several weeks after September 11, died of cancer last Friday at the age of 44.

Firefighter Richard Mannetta, 44, and Police Officer Cory Diaz, 37, both passed away from cancer the following Saturday and Wednesday.

The deaths could reignite anger over delay and refusal in Congress in passing a bill that would help pay for the medical care of survivors and aid workers.

If passed, the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act would provide $10 billion for medical care for hundreds of first responders who have since become ill, although officially the illnesses have never been linked to the World Trade Center collapse.

The act is named after a New York City Police Department detective who died from his post-9/11 ailments.

“Unfortunately, it's just going to happen more and more…I hope next week there isn't four,” regretted Stephen Grossman.

To better illustrate the pattern, the newspaper noted that firefighter John McNamara, also 44, had died of cancer last month.

“These three deaths are proof that we need this bill passed today $#0151; not a year from now,” said John Feal, founder of the FealGood Foundation.

“How do you get this high cluster of serious cancer in just people that worked the pile?” he said. “That isn't a coincidence.”