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Ground Zero hero, 34, dies [Black Lung, mercury on brain]
Newsday ^ | 1/8/06 | Lindsay Faber

Posted on 01/08/2006 11:12:51 AM PST by saquin

A young police detective who spent nearly 500 hours sifting through rubble at Ground Zero has died of a lung disease connected to his cleanup efforts, police union officials said yesterday.

James Zadroga, 34, who died Thursday at his parents' New Jersey home, retired from the NYPD in July 2004 because of his deteriorating health. He is the first emergency worker to die from constant exposure to the Sept. 11 wreckage at the World Trade Center, said Michael Palladino, president of the Detectives' Endowment Association.

A high-ranking police source said the department does not have the medical authority to link Zadroga's death to his work at Ground Zero.

An autopsy was being done by the Ocean County, N.J., medical examiner's office.

Zadroga was inside Building 7 at the World Trade Center when it began to collapse on the afternoon of Sept. 11, 2001. After narrowly escaping death, he spent nearly 500 hours over the next month and a half at the site, searching for victims amid tons of debris and dirt, Palladino said.

According to Palladino, many detectives even stayed at the site beyond their daily tours of duty, working on their own time.

Zadroga became ill about a month after returning to the Manhattan South Precinct in late 2001. He died at his parents' home in Little Egg Harbor, N.J., of black lung disease and mercury on the brain, Palladino said.

(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; US: District of Columbia; US: New Jersey; US: New York; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: 4yrolddaughter; 911; blacklung; groundzero; health; jameszadroga; leo; mercuryonthebrain; nypd; obituary; wifediedofcancer; worldtradecenter; wtc; zadroga
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To: Xenalyte
500 hours in six weeks is 83 hours a week. If he worked six days a week, that's almost 14 hours a day. If he worked all seven days, that's close to 12 hours a day.

That seems like sort of a high number to me.

Lots of guys worked more than that. 100 hours a week was not uncommon amongst the recovery workers in the first couple of months.

21 posted on 01/08/2006 11:31:10 AM PST by gridlock
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To: saquin
One has to wonder why he wasn't wearing the proper protective gear. A good respirator, one that filters out both particulates and vapors, would probably have protected him.
22 posted on 01/08/2006 11:31:44 AM PST by COEXERJ145 (Those Who Want to Impeach President Bush Are the Party of Treason.)
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To: GretchenM

alot of the workers and police/firemen who were down there - did not wear breathing filters.


23 posted on 01/08/2006 11:32:27 AM PST by oceanview
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To: gridlock
About 400,000 Flourescent light bulbs

Mayhap this will mean Freedom Tower will be Mostly (95%) LED lighting.

24 posted on 01/08/2006 11:32:34 AM PST by ExcursionGuy84 ("Jesus, Your Love takes my breath away.")
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To: Sweetjustusnow

I tend to like to think of him as a hero...not a victim. There were many heros in those days following 9/11, some have already died and others will in times to come...

Let us always call them Hero.


25 posted on 01/08/2006 11:33:02 AM PST by EBH (Never give-up, Never give-in, and Never Forget)
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To: saquin

Sadly, he won't be the last. Expect a BUNCH of emergency workers to die over the next ten years from exposure.


26 posted on 01/08/2006 11:34:05 AM PST by Richard Kimball (How bout them Longhorns?)
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To: All

Didn't they wear masks?


27 posted on 01/08/2006 11:34:13 AM PST by Fawn
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To: gridlock; IronChefSakai
About 400,000 Flourescent light bulbs. Also about 10,000 thermostat switches. And that's just off the top of my head. Give me an hour and I'm sure I could think another dozen or so sources.

From what I have heard, the extinguisher system was old. could it have been old enough for the heat-sensing part of it to have mercury in it?
28 posted on 01/08/2006 11:35:05 AM PST by MikefromOhio
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To: EBH

"Let us always call them Hero"

You are so right, and I stand corrected.


29 posted on 01/08/2006 11:35:46 AM PST by Sweetjustusnow (Oust the IslamoCommies here and abroad.)
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To: COEXERJ145; oceanview
I remember ready in one of the safety magazines I get from the ASSE one of the problems was all the different manufactures of masks and not having enough of the right fitting cartridges for the masks. Each manufacture has a unique mechanism so you're stuck using only their cartridge. They are not interchangeable.

I believe this was discussed and was going to be changed? But, I don't recall it ever having happened.
30 posted on 01/08/2006 11:37:44 AM PST by EBH (Never give-up, Never give-in, and Never Forget)
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To: EBH
Here is one theory. It is a combination of the flourescent tubes and depending on the person his dental amalgam. Crazy...

What? No mention of the baked salmon salad?

31 posted on 01/08/2006 11:39:03 AM PST by FreeReign
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To: saquin
He died at his parents' home in Little Egg Harbor, N.J., of black lung disease and mercury on the brain, Palladino said.

Highly unlikely.

Black lung disease is a specific medical condition developed by coal miners, usually after decades of exposure.

I have no clue what mercury on the brain is, but I'm sure it's not a specific disease.

While there may have been significant total amounts of mercury released when the Towers collapsed, any one person is likely to only have been exposed to minute quantities. In addition, the mercury released would probably have been in elemental form, which is relatively harmless, not the organic forms that cause serious poisoning in low doses.

32 posted on 01/08/2006 11:39:11 AM PST by Restorer
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To: EBH

ready= reading.

sheesh


33 posted on 01/08/2006 11:39:24 AM PST by EBH (Never give-up, Never give-in, and Never Forget)
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To: COEXERJ145

Obviously you've never worn a respirator for long. Nobody could effectively work for that many hours while wearing one. Not that this should have stopped them from enforcing appropriate respiratory protection.


34 posted on 01/08/2006 11:40:31 AM PST by Restorer
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To: GretchenM

More late victims of the attack. God Bless him.

I don't think regs will stop Americans from working a rescue.


35 posted on 01/08/2006 11:40:46 AM PST by kenth (Schrödinger's dog is both happy and sad.)
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To: soloNYer
May the lawsuits begin!

Clinton will have a statement on this I'm sure. She was starting a little early when she said the workers were let back in Ground Zero too soon.

It would have been funny to watch her and the enviro thugs standing at the yellow tape line saying you can't go in till we say it's OK. I can just see the space suits people wandering around with air samplers for 5 years watching the WTC smoldering. NYC would have gone under and the nation would still be under waiting for the air to clear.

It's possible that too much caution was used in the recent mine explosion and it costs lives. I'm all for safety, but when lives are at stake, there is almost always hero's willing to push the envelope to save lives. I don't think you can order someone in to harm's way, but it's been my experience there are always volunteers. Remember Columbine? Standing around when children are being murdered isn't good. At the very least the teacher could have been saved by a quicker response.

36 posted on 01/08/2006 11:41:07 AM PST by chuckles
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To: ExcursionGuy84
Mayhap this will mean Freedom Tower will be Mostly (95%) LED lighting.

Modern Floursecents have almost no mercury in them. The LEDs are in the Freedom Tower because it has become the boondoggle to end all boondoggles. The whole building will be gold-plated by the time it is done.

37 posted on 01/08/2006 11:41:32 AM PST by gridlock
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To: EBH

Respirator manufacturers still, for the most part, do not use interchangeable cartridges. This is because they often sell the respirators at or below cost, even give them away, on the assumption that they'll more than make it back over time on the high-markup cartridges. If cartridges were interchangeable, this approach wouldn't work.

Same economics play out in the purchase of inkjet printers.


38 posted on 01/08/2006 11:43:07 AM PST by Restorer
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To: gridlock
The whole building will be gold-plated by the time it is done

Aren't you confusing the Freedom Tower with the Trump tower [being built down in Soth FLorida]??

39 posted on 01/08/2006 11:44:59 AM PST by ExcursionGuy84 ("Jesus, Your Love takes my breath away.")
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To: saquin

God bless him and keep him.


40 posted on 01/08/2006 11:45:31 AM PST by earlyamerican
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