By SARA KUGLER, Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK - Firefighters who battled a killer blaze in a condemned ground zero skyscraper lacked a basic tool: the building's water supply system was busted.
Fire marshals discovered that the network, known as the standpipe, was not operational Saturday when two firefighters died inside the burning former Deutsche Bank tower. Investigators found a chunk of the standpipe unattached and laying on the floor in the basement, the city said Monday.
The troubled building had been plagued with citations before the fire, and received another violation for failure to maintain the standpipe system after investigators made the discovery. Firefighters Joseph Graffagnino and Robert Beddia got lost on the 14th floor as their air tanks ran out. They inhaled smoke and died of cardiac arrest; their funerals are Thursday and Friday. More than 50 firefighters suffered minor injuries.
The former Deutsche Bank office building has been empty since it was damaged on the morning of the World Trade Center attack six years ago, and was being dismantled floor by floor. It once stood 41 stories, but demolition crews had reduced it to 26 by Saturday. The city said Monday that fire investigators had determined the blaze began in an area on the 17th floor where workers stopped for decontamination. Fire marshals spoke to eyewitnesses who said workers would smoke and put out cigarettes in the area, which was near the construction elevator used to access the floor. The city said there also was some electrical equipment there, including hot water heaters for decontamination showers.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a statement that investigators still did not know how the fire started. "At this point we do not know the cause of the fire, but full and comprehensive investigations are under way," he said. "We are using every possible resource to find out how this fire started and what went wrong." The mayor said separate investigations were launched to determine how the fire started and what led to the firefighters' deaths.
Officials also were trying to sort out the confusion about who was responsible for the standpipe and other issues. Private contractors are working on the state-owned building, while multiple local, state and federal agencies have a hand in the decontamination and deconstruction. The effort was described by the city as "unusually complex."
The skyscraper's owner, the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., bought the tower three years ago and took over the removal project. As the demolition proceeded, the city Department of Buildings issued a separate permit for each floor before it could be taken down. With each floor permit, the Department of Buildings visually inspected the valves and caps for the standpipe in the area, but the inspections did not include testing the water flow. The last permit was as recent as July 31, for the dismantling of the 26th floor.
In working buildings, the fire department is responsible for checking the water flow in standpipes every five years, according to fire department spokesman Jim Long. Building owners typically maintain them in between. The city could not say on Monday when the water network had last been tested, but the fire department said the building had been issued at least one other violation related to standpipe problems.
Apart from the water problems, the building owner had racked up a number of citations before the fire from city building inspectors, for complaints including debris falling from the building and excessive amounts of combustible debris and plywood stacked around the site. The deaths also raised questions about why emergency responders would enter an empty building that was long ago condemned. The president of the Uniformed Fire Officers Association, Jack McDonnell, said there was no other choice than to send firefighters into the building. "It never could have been contained from the outside," he said. "The building could have collapsed, endangering lives and property."
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Doctors, Democrats scrutinize September 11 dust
By Ishani GanguliWed Jul 18, 3:38 AM ET
Pilar Albarado spent five months after September 11, 2001, cleaning pulverized building material from apartment buildings and offices near the site of the World Trade Center. A chronic cough came two years later, and she is also battling asthma, memory loss and acid reflux.
Only now, almost six years after the attacks, is the extent of the medical toll on firefighters, police and others who worked on the cleanup coming to light, along with questions about how much the government knew of the danger.
Albarado, 44, cannot work because of her medical problems. Her acid reflux is so bad she cannot eat most foods.
She is being treated at the recently opened World Trade Center health clinic at Bellevue Hospital, but she said the medicines they give her do little to help.
"Our problems will be with us for life," she said during a protest outside congressional offices in June. "I will never be the same."
SICKENING DUST
Democrats in Congress say Albarado is one of thousands of people endangered when the Bush Administration knowingly played down the risks posed by the dust, which contained asbestos, lead and other contaminants.
Inhalation of dust-laden air has been implicated in at least two deaths -- from lung inflammation and scarring -- and connected to the respiratory illnesses and even cancers of thousands working and living within miles of Ground Zero, according to medical studies.
Mount Sinai Medical Center researchers found 69 percent of the nearly 10,000 first responders they examined had new or worsened lung problems after September 11, while doctors at New York University School of Medicine documented these problems in lower Manhattan residents.
The Bellevue program is currently treating more than 1,300 such patients, and others are on a waiting list.
Researchers are still working to understand the long-term effects of these exposures and how psychological distress from the event might contribute to physical problems.
"We're finding that there are respiratory problems that are persisting well beyond what we anticipated -- considering people were exposed six years ago," said Alison Geyh at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore. "The question is why."
The World Trade Center Health Registry, which includes more than 71,000 directly exposed New York City residents and workers, will track their physical and mental health for up to 20 years and may provide some answers, Geyh said in a telephone interview.
CLEARING THE AIR
Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democratic who headed a House of Representatives hearing on the issue in June, said the Environmental Protection Agency issued falsely reassuring statements about air safety and asbestos levels.
This led first responders to work with inadequate protective equipment and New Yorkers to return to "homes, schools and workplaces that had not been properly tested."
Congressional Democrats also faulted the EPA for failing to meet its clean-up responsibilities.
Then Environment Secretary Christie Whitman told the congressional hearings she did not regret her comments, nor her role in reopening Manhattan workplaces on September 17.
She added that she acted on the scientific information she had been given at the time. "I will believe the scientists when they tell me what is safe to breathe," Whitman said.
But according to Geyh, who was at Ground Zero collecting environmental hazard data immediately after the attacks, the complicated circumstances did not warrant such early assurances.
An August 2003 report by the EPA's inspector general found that some of these statements were made without scientific evidence, and also implicated the White House in mitigating health warnings.
Earlier this year, a federal judge ruled that Whitman knowingly lied to New York residents about their health risks. The case is now under appeal.
Pilar Albarado spent five months after September 11, 2001, cleaning pulverized building material from apartment buildings and offices near the site of the World Trade Center. A chronic cough came two years later, and she is also battling asthma, memory loss and acid reflux.
Only now, almost six years after the attacks, is the extent of the medical toll on firefighters, police and others who worked on the cleanup coming to light, along with questions about how much the government knew of the danger.
Albarado, 44, cannot work because of her medical problems. Her acid reflux is so bad she cannot eat most foods.
She is being treated at the recently opened World Trade Center health clinic at Bellevue Hospital, but she said the medicines they give her do little to help.
"Our problems will be with us for life," she said during a protest outside congressional offices in June. "I will never be the same."
SICKENING DUST
Democrats in Congress say Albarado is one of thousands of people endangered when the Bush Administration knowingly played down the risks posed by the dust, which contained asbestos, lead and other contaminants.
Inhalation of dust-laden air has been implicated in at least two deaths -- from lung inflammation and scarring -- and connected to the respiratory illnesses and even cancers of thousands working and living within miles of Ground Zero, according to medical studies.
Mount Sinai Medical Center researchers found 69 percent of the nearly 10,000 first responders they examined had new or worsened lung problems after September 11, while doctors at New York University School of Medicine documented these problems in lower Manhattan residents.
The Bellevue program is currently treating more than 1,300 such patients, and others are on a waiting list.
Researchers are still working to understand the long-term effects of these exposures and how psychological distress from the event might contribute to physical problems.
"We're finding that there are respiratory problems that are persisting well beyond what we anticipated -- considering people were exposed six years ago," said Alison Geyh at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore. "The question is why."
The World Trade Center Health Registry, which includes more than 71,000 directly exposed New York City residents and workers, will track their physical and mental health for up to 20 years and may provide some answers, Geyh said in a telephone interview.
CLEARING THE AIR
Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democratic who headed a House of Representatives hearing on the issue in June, said the Environmental Protection Agency issued falsely reassuring statements about air safety and asbestos levels.
This led first responders to work with inadequate protective equipment and New Yorkers to return to "homes, schools and workplaces that had not been properly tested."
Congressional Democrats also faulted the EPA for failing to meet its clean-up responsibilities.
Then Environment Secretary Christie Whitman told the congressional hearings she did not regret her comments, nor her role in reopening Manhattan workplaces on September 17.
She added that she acted on the scientific information she had been given at the time. "I will believe the scientists when they tell me what is safe to breathe," Whitman said.
But according to Geyh, who was at Ground Zero collecting environmental hazard data immediately after the attacks, the complicated circumstances did not warrant such early assurances.
An August 2003 report by the EPA's inspector general found that some of these statements were made without scientific evidence, and also implicated the White House in mitigating health warnings.
Earlier this year, a federal judge ruled that Whitman knowingly lied to New York residents about their health risks. The case is now under appeal.
Monday, June 18, 2007
Autism Debate Strains a Family and Its Charity
By JANE GROSS and STEPHANIE STROM
Published: NY Times; June 18, 2007
A year after their grandson Christian received a diagnosis of autism in 2004, Bob Wright, then chairman of NBC/Universal, and his wife, Suzanne, founded Autism Speaks, a mega-charity dedicated to curing the dreaded neurological disorder that affects one of every 150 children in America today.
The Wrights’ venture was also an effort to end the internecine warfare in the world of autism — where some are convinced that the disorder is genetic and best treated with intensive therapy, and others blame preservatives in vaccinations and swear by supplements and diet to cleanse the body of heavy metals.
With its high-powered board, world-class scientific advisers and celebrity fund-raisers like Jerry Seinfeld and Paul Simon, the charity was a powerful voice, especially in Washington. It also made strides toward its goal of unity by merging with three existing autism organizations and raising millions of dollars for research into all potential causes and treatments. The Wrights call it the “big tent” approach.
But now the fissures in the autism community have made their way into the Wright family, where father and daughter are not speaking after a public battle over themes familiar to thousands of families with autistic children.
The Wrights’ daughter, Katie, the mother of Christian, says her parents have not given enough support to the people who believe, as she does, that the environment — specifically a synthetic mercury preservative in vaccines — is to blame. No major scientific studies have linked pediatric vaccination and autism, but many parents and their advocates persist, and a federal “vaccine court” is now reviewing nearly 4,000 such claims.
The Wright feud has played out in cyberspace and spilled into Autism Speaks, where those who disagree with Katie Wright’s views worry that she is setting its agenda. And the family intent on healing a fractured community has instead opened its old wounds and is itself riven.
The rift began in April when Katie put herself squarely on the side of “The Mercurys,” as that faction is known, on Oprah Winfrey, where she described how her talkative toddler turned unresponsive and out-of-control after his vaccines and only improved with unconventional, and untested, remedies.
In a Web interview with David Kirby, author of the controversial book, “Evidence of Harm: Mercury in Vaccines and the Autism Epidemic,” Ms. Wright lashed out at the “old guard” scientists and pioneering autism families. If the old-timers are unable to let go of “failed strategies,” she said, they should “step aside” and let a new generation “have a chance to do something different with this money” that her parents’ charity was dispensing.
Complaints poured in from those who said Ms. Wright’s remarks were denigrating.
So, in early June, Bob and Suzanne Wright repudiated their daughter on the charity’s Web site. “Katie Wright is not a spokesperson” for the organization, the Wrights said in a brusque statement. Her “personal views differ from ours.” The Wrights also apologized to “valued volunteers” who had been disparaged. Told by friends how cold the rebuke sounded, Mrs. Wright belatedly added a line saying, “Katie is our daughter, and we love her very much.”
Ms. Wright called the statement a “character assassination.” She said she had not spoken to her father since. Ms. Wright continues to spend time with her mother, but said they had not discussed the situation.
“I totally respect if her feelings were hurt,” Mrs. Wright said. “But a lot of feelings were hurt. A lot.”
Now other autism families who hoped to put their differences aside are shouting at each other in cyberspace. “Our struggle is not and should not be against each other,” said Ilene Lainer, the mother of an autistic child and the executive director of the New York Center for Autism.
The big tent approach of Autism Speaks appealed to Mel Karmazin, chief executive of Sirius Radio and an early board member and contributor. “If you look at what projects Autism Speaks has funded, we are agnostic,” he said.
Mr. Karmazin, who also has an autistic grandson, added, “I never wanted to look my grandson in the eye and tell him I’m taking just one viewpoint or that I think it had to be genetic.”
Bob and Suzanne Wright are sympathetic to Katie’s plight, having witnessed Christian’s sudden regression and his many physical ailments, mostly gastrointestinal, which afflict many autistic children.
The boy did not respond to behavioral therapies, the Wrights said, leading to their daughter’s desperate search for anything that might help. “When you have that sense of hopelessness, and don’t see results, you do things that other people think is too risky,” Mr. Wright said. “The doctors say, ‘Wait for the science.’ But you don’t have time to wait for the science.”
The Wrights agreed to disagree with most of Katie’s views. But her public attack on other parents crossed a line, Mr. and Mrs. Wright said in separate telephone interviews.
“I know my daughter feels deeply that not enough is being done,” Mr. Wright said. “The larger issue is we want to be helpful to everyone, and to do that we need information, data, facts.”
Some in the traditional scientific community worry that Autism Speaks has let Ms. Wright’s experience shape its agenda. She scoffs at the notion. Her parents, she said in a telephone interview, are “courageous” and “trying very hard,” but have been slow to explore alternative approaches.
“You can say it and say it and say it,” she said. “Show me evidence that they’re actively researching vaccines.”
The Wright family’s fight has captured the attention of the bloggers, who are now questioning everything from its office lease to how it makes grants. The charity rebutted the bloggers’ accusations of improprieties in interviews with The New York Times, which examined its IRS forms and read relevant sections to Gerald A. Rosenberg, former head of the New York State attorney general’s charities bureau. He said nothing he reviewed was untoward.
The most distinctive aspect of Autism Speaks is its alliance with Autism Coalition for Research and Education, an advocacy group; the National Alliance for Autism Research, devoted to scientific research into potential genetic causes, with high standards for peer review; and Cure Autism Now, which has championed unconventional theories and therapies.
Which wing of the merged charity is ascendant? Some establishment scientists and parents now fear it is The Mercurys. They point to Cure Autism Now’s having more seats than the National Alliance does on the board of directors and the growing number of research projects that focus on environmental causes.
At a recent benefit gala, featuring Bill Cosby and Toni Braxton, some in the audience were surprised when Mr. Wright announced that all proceeds would go toward environmental research, which generally includes vaccines.
But a list of current research grants on the Autism Speaks Web site suggests that the Wrights, while walking a fine line, are leaning toward genetic theories.
From 2005 to 2007, the charity sponsored $11.5 million in grants for genetic research (compared with $5.9 million by all its partners between 1997 and 2004). It sponsored $4.4 million in environmental research (down from $6 million granted by the partners in the previous seven years). And many of the environmental studies explore what is known as the double-hit hypothesis: That the genes for autism may be activated in some children by exposure to mercury or other neuro-toxins.
Bob and Suzanne Wright say their two-year immersion into the world of autism has been an eye-opener, especially the heated arguments worthy of the Hatfields and McCoys.
Mrs. Wright is aware that the marriage of the Alliance and Cure Autism Now, for instance, could fall apart over opposing ideologies. “I’m not going to let it,” she said. “The truth will rise to the top.”
She is also aware that the rift in her own family needs repair: On Friday, her daughter posted a message on an autism Web site questioning their “personal denouncement of me.”
Yet Mrs. Wright is confident that “we’ll work our way through this.” Autism, she said “has done enough damage to my family. I’m not letting it do any more.”
My 4-yr-old son was been diagnosed with autism almost two years ago. He is beautiful. He is funny. He is sweet. He loves. He also has trouble dealing with situations that are unfamiliar to him. He has what are called sensory integrations issues. That means his brain doesn't interpret the input he gets from his 5 senses the same way you or I do. When he was diagnosed, he did not speak at all. He was over 2 years old and had no communication skills at all. He did not even point. 6 months of very INTENSE ABA (Applied Behavioral Analysis) via Discrete Trials, Speech Therapy and Occupational Therapy, did wonders for his speech and cognitive skills. A year of preschool in an Autistic Support classroom has done a good job of improving his social skills.
I don’t know the cause of Autism. I don’t think anybody actually knows the cause of Autism. I know that my son is a poster boy candidate for behavioral therapies. They happened to work for him and work well. It was an amazing thing watching the light go on inside him. I hope it never dims. I don’t care who’s right. I don’t care if it has a genetic component or it is solely the result of high mercury content in vaccines. I just want them to test everything, be honest and own up to the actual cause, and prevent this from hurting any more families.
Published: NY Times; June 18, 2007
A year after their grandson Christian received a diagnosis of autism in 2004, Bob Wright, then chairman of NBC/Universal, and his wife, Suzanne, founded Autism Speaks, a mega-charity dedicated to curing the dreaded neurological disorder that affects one of every 150 children in America today.
The Wrights’ venture was also an effort to end the internecine warfare in the world of autism — where some are convinced that the disorder is genetic and best treated with intensive therapy, and others blame preservatives in vaccinations and swear by supplements and diet to cleanse the body of heavy metals.
With its high-powered board, world-class scientific advisers and celebrity fund-raisers like Jerry Seinfeld and Paul Simon, the charity was a powerful voice, especially in Washington. It also made strides toward its goal of unity by merging with three existing autism organizations and raising millions of dollars for research into all potential causes and treatments. The Wrights call it the “big tent” approach.
But now the fissures in the autism community have made their way into the Wright family, where father and daughter are not speaking after a public battle over themes familiar to thousands of families with autistic children.
The Wrights’ daughter, Katie, the mother of Christian, says her parents have not given enough support to the people who believe, as she does, that the environment — specifically a synthetic mercury preservative in vaccines — is to blame. No major scientific studies have linked pediatric vaccination and autism, but many parents and their advocates persist, and a federal “vaccine court” is now reviewing nearly 4,000 such claims.
The Wright feud has played out in cyberspace and spilled into Autism Speaks, where those who disagree with Katie Wright’s views worry that she is setting its agenda. And the family intent on healing a fractured community has instead opened its old wounds and is itself riven.
The rift began in April when Katie put herself squarely on the side of “The Mercurys,” as that faction is known, on Oprah Winfrey, where she described how her talkative toddler turned unresponsive and out-of-control after his vaccines and only improved with unconventional, and untested, remedies.
In a Web interview with David Kirby, author of the controversial book, “Evidence of Harm: Mercury in Vaccines and the Autism Epidemic,” Ms. Wright lashed out at the “old guard” scientists and pioneering autism families. If the old-timers are unable to let go of “failed strategies,” she said, they should “step aside” and let a new generation “have a chance to do something different with this money” that her parents’ charity was dispensing.
Complaints poured in from those who said Ms. Wright’s remarks were denigrating.
So, in early June, Bob and Suzanne Wright repudiated their daughter on the charity’s Web site. “Katie Wright is not a spokesperson” for the organization, the Wrights said in a brusque statement. Her “personal views differ from ours.” The Wrights also apologized to “valued volunteers” who had been disparaged. Told by friends how cold the rebuke sounded, Mrs. Wright belatedly added a line saying, “Katie is our daughter, and we love her very much.”
Ms. Wright called the statement a “character assassination.” She said she had not spoken to her father since. Ms. Wright continues to spend time with her mother, but said they had not discussed the situation.
“I totally respect if her feelings were hurt,” Mrs. Wright said. “But a lot of feelings were hurt. A lot.”
Now other autism families who hoped to put their differences aside are shouting at each other in cyberspace. “Our struggle is not and should not be against each other,” said Ilene Lainer, the mother of an autistic child and the executive director of the New York Center for Autism.
The big tent approach of Autism Speaks appealed to Mel Karmazin, chief executive of Sirius Radio and an early board member and contributor. “If you look at what projects Autism Speaks has funded, we are agnostic,” he said.
Mr. Karmazin, who also has an autistic grandson, added, “I never wanted to look my grandson in the eye and tell him I’m taking just one viewpoint or that I think it had to be genetic.”
Bob and Suzanne Wright are sympathetic to Katie’s plight, having witnessed Christian’s sudden regression and his many physical ailments, mostly gastrointestinal, which afflict many autistic children.
The boy did not respond to behavioral therapies, the Wrights said, leading to their daughter’s desperate search for anything that might help. “When you have that sense of hopelessness, and don’t see results, you do things that other people think is too risky,” Mr. Wright said. “The doctors say, ‘Wait for the science.’ But you don’t have time to wait for the science.”
The Wrights agreed to disagree with most of Katie’s views. But her public attack on other parents crossed a line, Mr. and Mrs. Wright said in separate telephone interviews.
“I know my daughter feels deeply that not enough is being done,” Mr. Wright said. “The larger issue is we want to be helpful to everyone, and to do that we need information, data, facts.”
Some in the traditional scientific community worry that Autism Speaks has let Ms. Wright’s experience shape its agenda. She scoffs at the notion. Her parents, she said in a telephone interview, are “courageous” and “trying very hard,” but have been slow to explore alternative approaches.
“You can say it and say it and say it,” she said. “Show me evidence that they’re actively researching vaccines.”
The Wright family’s fight has captured the attention of the bloggers, who are now questioning everything from its office lease to how it makes grants. The charity rebutted the bloggers’ accusations of improprieties in interviews with The New York Times, which examined its IRS forms and read relevant sections to Gerald A. Rosenberg, former head of the New York State attorney general’s charities bureau. He said nothing he reviewed was untoward.
The most distinctive aspect of Autism Speaks is its alliance with Autism Coalition for Research and Education, an advocacy group; the National Alliance for Autism Research, devoted to scientific research into potential genetic causes, with high standards for peer review; and Cure Autism Now, which has championed unconventional theories and therapies.
Which wing of the merged charity is ascendant? Some establishment scientists and parents now fear it is The Mercurys. They point to Cure Autism Now’s having more seats than the National Alliance does on the board of directors and the growing number of research projects that focus on environmental causes.
At a recent benefit gala, featuring Bill Cosby and Toni Braxton, some in the audience were surprised when Mr. Wright announced that all proceeds would go toward environmental research, which generally includes vaccines.
But a list of current research grants on the Autism Speaks Web site suggests that the Wrights, while walking a fine line, are leaning toward genetic theories.
From 2005 to 2007, the charity sponsored $11.5 million in grants for genetic research (compared with $5.9 million by all its partners between 1997 and 2004). It sponsored $4.4 million in environmental research (down from $6 million granted by the partners in the previous seven years). And many of the environmental studies explore what is known as the double-hit hypothesis: That the genes for autism may be activated in some children by exposure to mercury or other neuro-toxins.
Bob and Suzanne Wright say their two-year immersion into the world of autism has been an eye-opener, especially the heated arguments worthy of the Hatfields and McCoys.
Mrs. Wright is aware that the marriage of the Alliance and Cure Autism Now, for instance, could fall apart over opposing ideologies. “I’m not going to let it,” she said. “The truth will rise to the top.”
She is also aware that the rift in her own family needs repair: On Friday, her daughter posted a message on an autism Web site questioning their “personal denouncement of me.”
Yet Mrs. Wright is confident that “we’ll work our way through this.” Autism, she said “has done enough damage to my family. I’m not letting it do any more.”
My 4-yr-old son was been diagnosed with autism almost two years ago. He is beautiful. He is funny. He is sweet. He loves. He also has trouble dealing with situations that are unfamiliar to him. He has what are called sensory integrations issues. That means his brain doesn't interpret the input he gets from his 5 senses the same way you or I do. When he was diagnosed, he did not speak at all. He was over 2 years old and had no communication skills at all. He did not even point. 6 months of very INTENSE ABA (Applied Behavioral Analysis) via Discrete Trials, Speech Therapy and Occupational Therapy, did wonders for his speech and cognitive skills. A year of preschool in an Autistic Support classroom has done a good job of improving his social skills.
I don’t know the cause of Autism. I don’t think anybody actually knows the cause of Autism. I know that my son is a poster boy candidate for behavioral therapies. They happened to work for him and work well. It was an amazing thing watching the light go on inside him. I hope it never dims. I don’t care who’s right. I don’t care if it has a genetic component or it is solely the result of high mercury content in vaccines. I just want them to test everything, be honest and own up to the actual cause, and prevent this from hurting any more families.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)