Most 9/11 responders settle suit over toxic dust

msnbc ^ | 11/19 | AP

[Skeez]

NEW YORK — More than 10,000 people have joined a legal settlement that will pay hundreds of millions of dollars to ground zero workers exposed to toxic World Trade Center dust.

The near-universal acceptance of the deal was announced by a court Friday.

It will mean an end to most litigation over New York City's failure to provide protective equipment to construction workers, police and firefighters who cleared rubble.

Only around 500 of the thousands who sued the city over the cleanup declined to take the offer.

At least 95 percent had to sign on to make the deal effective. It just cleared that hurdle, with 95.1 percent.

The settlement will provide at least $625 million. Related deals could boost that total to more than $725 million.

[traditional1]

Taxpayers will be forced to hand over probably $600 million in cash to Lawyers, and the actual individuals in the settlement will get a coupon for $5 off of dust masks at Home Depot.

[The Good Doctor]

"Taxpayers will be forced to hand over probably $600 million in cash to Lawyers"

'zactly

[WaterBoard]

The interesting thing about this lawsuit is that most of the 10,000 plantiffs have no symptoms or disease.

Since its introduction in 2006, 35,980 people have filed WTC Workers Compensation paperwork. Although not a claim, the documents enable employee and volunteer workers to file future claims if the Board is notified of their Ground Zero clean-up efforts. Those involved in the cleanup in and around Canal Street; Fresh Kills Landfill; and on the barges, piers, and morgues, up until September 12, 2002 are eligible.

They were suing on the basis of ‘fears of future illness’.

Plaintiffs claiming fear of future illness, but who do not present with an injury that qualifies under the settlement accord, will receive smaller payouts of $3,250 to $11,000.

One-quarter of the settlement will pay legal fees to scum bag lawyers.

[WaterBoard]

An acutal real medical study of emergency responders should just a handful of workers with lung conditions. "Doctors from the Fire Department and at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine found that 13 firefighters and emergency medical service workers developed sarcoidosis. The authors of the study, which include Dr. David J. Prezant, deputy chief medical officer of the Fire Department and a member of the faculty at Albert Einstein calculated an incidence rate in the first year after the collapse of 86 cases per 100,000 workers. This finding is more than five times higher than the 15 per 100,000 rate (an average of two to four cases per year) for Firefighter Department workers in the 15 years before the trade center collapsed." So if 36,000 people claim to have worked/voluteered at ground zero the rate of disease would be around 28 cases. Yet, 10,000 claim illness.

[Alberta's Child]

I’m never one to defend frivolous lawsuits involving phony claims, but I wonder if there’s a good reason to file such a “fear of future illness” claim based on a statute of limitations that may prevent them from filing a claim later if they have health problems later in life.