Death of James Zadroga

Former New York City detective, James Zadroga, died January 5th at the age of thirty-four with little attention given by the media. The report just released by the medical examiner's office in Ocean County, N.J., states that his death was related with a "reasonable degree of medical certainty" to the contaminants in the air at ground zero following the Trade Center collapse. Mr Zadroga was a non-smoker and had no lung ailments. However, he had worked 450 hours on clean-up at ground zero during the period immediately following the attack on 9/11/2001 by followers of Osama bin Laden. A few days after the attack, an Environmental Protection Agency preliminary finding that the air at ground zero was not safe to breathe was refuted by then Secretary of the EPA, Christie Whitman. Shortly afterwards, businessess like the stock market were allowed to reopen. One might ask if the Bush administration let profitability trump workplace safety. More than 7,300 people who worked at the trade center recovery site - police officers, firefighters and constructions workers - have joined in a class-action suit seeking damages from their employers. According to David E. Worby, their lawyer, about 40 of them have already died. So, as Mr Bush has cut the budget every year of the very agencies that carry out workplace inspections and enforcement, our representatives, Frank LoBiondo, R-2nd, and Jim Saxton, R-3rd, have voted for legislation that places America's workers in greater danger of accidents and long term health risks. For example, two of their votes allow an increase in the levels of coal dust in mines and chromium used in steel manufacturing. Fine coal dust in suspension is highly volatile and exposure to it and chromium for long periods increase the probability of fatal lung and blood disorders. While we are stuck with Mr Bush until 2008, come November we can replace Messrs LoBiondo and Saxton with people who better represent our interests in Washington.

NICK REINA

Buena Vista Twp.