The Freedom Tower

The Queens Gazette in New York reports that people from all 50 states and the District of Columbia have enrolled in the World Trade Center Health Registry. This comes from Congress woman Carolyn Maloney. The newspaper says Malone is waging her own campaign to acquire federal funds to treat New Yorkers who have become seriously ill after cleaning up at Ground Zero.
Maloney and Congressman Vito Fossella of Staten Island issued a report which found that thousands of Americans throughout the country were in the immediate vicinity of Ground Zero in the months following 9/11.
So the point here is that people who were once within striking distance of Ground Zero have moved and now live in all fifty states. The geography, of course, isn’t an issue.
The 9/11 health crisis is therefore a national problem. So Maloney seeks federal funds to monitor Americans throughout the country.

The Queens Gazette in New York reports that people from all 50 states and the District of Columbia have enrolled in the World Trade Center Health Registry. This comes from Congress woman Carolyn Maloney. The newspaper says Malone is waging her own campaign to acquire federal funds to treat New Yorkers who have become seriously ill after cleaning up at Ground Zero.
Maloney and Congressman Vito Fossella of Staten Island issued a report which found that thousands of Americans throughout the country were in the immediate vicinity of Ground Zero in the months following 9/11.
So the point here is that people who were once within striking distance of Ground Zero have moved and now live in all fifty states. The geography, of course, isn’t an issue.
The 9/11 health crisis is therefore a national problem. So Maloney seeks federal funds to monitor Americans throughout the country.

A new study links a lung disease suffered by rescue workers and firefighters to their exposure to toxic dust at Ground Zero. The men and women who worked and first responded to the 9/11 disaster have contracted a serious lung-scarring disease called sarcoidosis.
The study was published by nine doctors, including the medical officer who monitors city firefighters, Dr. David Prezant. It says rescue workers and firefighters contracted the condition in the year after Sept. 11, 2001 and they came down with the disease at a rate that was five times higher than the year before.
“Unlike previous studies that have linked exposure to the toxic dust cloud that enveloped lower Manhattan after the World Trade Center’s collapse to many different respiratory illnesses, the AP says, “this study zeros in on one disease.

‘Sarcoidosis, which can be life-threatening, causes an inflammation in the lungs that deposits tiny cells in the organs, leaving scar tissues that damage them. Several rescue workers and others exposed to trade center dust have claimed they contracted the disease from their work at ground zero.”

Our northern friends at the Canadian Press are reporting that a number of New York City firefighters exposed to the dust at the World Trade Center have developed lung conditions that are “troublesome” but “not especially dangerous. It is called sarcoidosis. The Canadians say Sarcoidosis involves inflammation that produces tiny lumps of cells called granulomas. They can form in any part of the body, but one of the most common sites is the lungs. “We don’t know what causes it throughout the world, but we have long suspected wood-burning exposures,” said Dr. David J. Prezant, chief medical officer of the New York City Fire Department, and a professor of medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. “For that reason, we have been looking at New York firefighters back to 1985. In 1999, we reported their incidence was increased compared to the general New York population. “What was surprising was the dramatic increase after 9/11,” Prezant continued. “We had been averaging two cases a year. One year after 9/11, we had 13 cases. The incidence decreased after that, and now it is down to four cases a year.” Their ailments are being closely monitored and treated by physicians in New York hospitals especially since 9/11.

There has been growing concern about the injuries and illnesses among the responders who worked or volunteered on the WTC rescue and recovery effort since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center (WTC).
The Irving J. Selikoff Center for Occupational and Environmental Medicine of the Department of Community and Preventive Medicine of The Mount Sinai Medical Center established a comprehensive World Trade Center Worker and Volunteer Medical Screening Program.
It was prompted by the efforts of New York’s labor organizations and the support of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/ The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). The Center provides free medical assessments, diagnostic and treatment referrals, and occupational health education for thousands of responders exposed to hazards during the WTC rescue and recovery effort.
The WTC Medical Screening Program has examined approximately 10,500 workers: about 8,800 at Mount Sinai, 1,700 at four collaborating facilities in the greater New York/New Jersey metropolitan area, and 500 nationally, under the auspices of the Association of Occupational and Environmental Clinics.
In the five and a half years since the WTC attack, many responders have developed long-term, life-threatening diseases such as pulmonary diseases, diabetes, hypertension, or cancer, which may or may not be directly attributable to their experiences at the WTC site. Because of this, Mount Sinai’s WTC Medical Screening Program has expanded and is now named the WTC Medical Monitoring and Treatment Program.
Countless numbers of responders have also lost their ability to work and consequently their health insurance and/or primary source of income. While NIOSH has apportioned funding to Mount Sinai and its consortium partners to treat these individuals, treatments are limited to illnesses directly related to WTC conditions, primarily musculoskeletal injuries, respiratory illnesses, and psychological disorders. This restriction leaves many responders without the adequate financial support needed to pay for treatment for other long-term, life-threatening illnesses that they may face. Your support will help alleviate this burden those lacking health insurance and/or facing a life-threatening illness that is not covered by current medical monitoring and treatment programs.

Workers have again found remains at Ground Zero.

News agencies are reporting that the remains of six World Trade Center victims were found last week by workers at the site. They recovered four body parts under a service road and two other parts were found on the roof of a Cedar Street building near Ground Zero. Since the effort to search the World Trade Center for human remains was renewed in October, more then 600 bones and fragments have been found in and around the site, yet nearly 1,100 victims of the terror attack have yet to be identified.
What is tasteless, criminal in fact, about this is the fact Ground Zero is still a crime scene that has not been thoroughly investigated. When I covered alley shootings in Brooklyn or the Bronx, you didn’t let fools go mucking around inside or around the perimiter of a crime scene. It was just bad police work. There is something terribly out of place here and it is that 800 pound guerilla no one in charge seems willing to talk about – not halting construction until a substantial number of the 9/11 victims have been identified is insane.
The decision to go forward with construction without finishing the job is the greater crime of fools. They are we!

I’m not all that interested in celebrating the decisions fools have made …

It is rare that any news organization has a true exclusive these days. The New York Post made this claim today, offering the first look at the dramatic three-story lobby slated for World Trade Center Tower 3, its glass-walled atrium overlooking a new section of Greenwich Street and the Santiago Calatrava- designed rail station just to the north.

As I suspected, these images are all over the Net.

“Tower 3, which is being designed by British architect Richard Rogers, is one of three towers slated for the eastern edge of the World Trade Center, between Church Street and what will be a newly reopened section of Greenwich Street,” the Post said “It’s a massive building with 2.4 million square feet of office space,” said Ground Zero developer Larry Silverstein. “At 1,155 feet tall, it has 40,000-square-foot floors in the tower and four floors with over 50,000-square- foot trading floors in the base.” Silverstein envisions Tower 3, also known as 175 Greenwich St., as a corporate headquarters because of its large trading floors that are coveted by financial firms.

I have deliberately ignored all of the chatter about architecture related to the Freedom Tower and reconstruction of the World Trade Center. It isn’t that design and architecture isn’t important, its just that keeping up with all the critics becomes a day job I can’t take on. Occasionally though, we check in with the comings and goings in this sector of the project.
Today, we’ll take a gander at About.Com: Architecture and Jackie Craven at that site and see what happening, or not so happening.
The dreams and plans of designers, architects, their plans, drawings and models for reconstruction are all here. Craven asks that you be patient when trying to pull up these works.
Go to
http://architecture.about.com/od/worldtradecenter/ig/World-Trade-Center-Plans/index.htm

The World Trade Center Picture Gallery is a photo record of Sept. 11. It is a very important site.

The Deutsche Bank Building was damaged in the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center. It is still not being used because black mold has been found in the building, making it unsafe for workers.
Engine 10, Ladder 10 was the first New York Fire Department to respond to the World Trade Center attacks. They lost all of the firefighters who were on duty that day.
Little new construction has been completed at the World Trade Centers. It appears that mass transit structures are being developed while final plans for the World Trade Center area are determined.

Here is the link. http://gonyc.about.com/od/photogalleries/l/bl_wtc01.htm

Visit it.

There’s a new Freedom Tower design. CNN today said that the revised design for the Freedom Tower was unveiled today by Gov. George Pataki, Major Mike Blooomberg, developer Larry Silverstein, and architect David Childs.
The new design moves the tower 90 feet from West Street.
The bottom 200 feet of the tower has been reinforced with steel and titanium to make it blast proof. The new design uses the same amount of commercial space as the previous design and many of the same key features.   This new design was devised because of concerns raised by the New York Police Department earlier this year. The concerns focus upon the vulnerability of the tower to bomb trucks and its proximity to West Street.   The project is projected to be completed by 2010. When finished, the Freedom Tower will be approximately 100 feet taller than Taipei 101, currently the tallest building in the world.