Study Shows Lung Ailments Persist For 9/11 Heroes

April 4, 2009 - PRLog -- More than seven years after the attacks of 9/11, first responders are suffering the effects of the toxic dust thrust into the air by the collapse of the World Trade Center, according to a recent study.
The Mount Sinai Medical Center’s medical monitoring program, which performed the study, examined more than 3,000 first responders from 2004 to 2007 and found that nearly a quarter had abnormal lung function.
The health effects observed in the study are just some of those suffered by first responders—a struggle personalized in One of Them: A First Responder’s Story, a recent book by Steven M. Centore, a nuclear physicist, Navy veteran and federal first responder who spent months helping clean up Ground Zero.

“I’ve suffered too many medical problems to list,” says Mr. Centore, who has had many surgeries post-9/11, including an emergency liver transplant. “As first responders, we’ve known all along how severe the problems have been. It’s just taken this long to have some of it confirmed by outside sources. Hopefully more people will listen to us now.”

Mr. Centore has testified before Congress on numerous occasions and has been an advocate for first responder rights for several years. He contends that even government programs set up to aid first responders are too restrictive and exclude too many applicants.

One of Them chronicles some of these restrictions, including:
• The 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund excludes first responders who arrived later than ninety-six hours after the attacks, even though the cleanup took months
• The fund excludes those who filed for assistance after December 22, 2003, a date that ignores slow-developing ailments
• To receive assistance, first responders and other victims had to sign waivers saying that they wouldn’t sue either the government or the airlines involved in the attack

To learn more about how you can help, or to buy the breakout book One of Them: A First Responder’s Story, visit www.SteveCentore.com or www.wadv-oneofthem.com. The book is also available on Borders.com, Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com.

For more information about One of Them: A First Responder’s Story, contact Steve Centore directly at Scentore@yahoo.com.

WORLDWIDE ASSOCIATION OF DISABLED VETERANS, INC. and author Steven M. Centore chose Arbor Books, Inc. (www.ArborBooks.com) to design and promote One of Them: A First Responder’s Story. Arbor Books is an internationally renowned, full-service book design, ghostwriting and marketing firm.  

(One of Them: A First Responder’s Story by Steven M. Centore; ISBN: 0-9801274-0-8; $16.95; 208 pages; 5½”x 8½”; softcover; Worldwide Association of Disabled Veterans, Inc.)