Test On Hatzolah Members Shirts From 9/11, Shows Toxic Deadly Results
Sky-high toxic levels of potentially deadly asbestos still cling to the fibers of this ordinary white dress shirt - worn by a 9/11 volunteer for two days at Ground Zero, a shocking analysis reveals.
Community liaison Yehuda Kaploun volunteered at Ground Zero for 48 hours immediately after the attack, wearing the shirt as he watched Fire Department chaplain Mychal Judge die in a building collapse.
The volunteer kept his contaminated shirt packed in a sealed plastic bag until last week, when the garment was send to RJ Lee Group laboratories for testing. And analyzed portions of his shirt collar reveal a chilling concentration of chrysotile asbestos - 93,000 times higher than the average typically found in the environment in U.S. cities. That appears to be even higher than what the EPA said was found in the most contaminated, blown-out building after 9/11.
Testing also revealed the shirt was contaminated with zinc, mercury, antimony, barium, chromium, cobalt, copper, lead and molybdenum. Tons of the heavy metals were pulverized and burned in the debris in fires that raged for four months.
On 9/11, Kaploun was a 35-year-old liaison between the Police and Fire departments and the Orthodox Jewish community, as well as a part-time Hatzolah Ambulance volunteer. He said he doesn't really know why he tucked the shirt away two days after the terror attacks. "But something told me that it was loaded with stuff - and it goes to show you how very wrong these people were whom we trusted," he said. "I remember coming home, and you know what, I was going to give the shirt to the cleaners, and then somehow, for some reason, I didn't.
"If my shirt and I can do something to help these people who were there for weeks and months on end - and if this is the kind of numbers needed that will help and support their cases - then that's the blessing."
Although Kaploun may have saved his shirt in honor of the heroic efforts he saw that day, he hopes it may ultimately turn out to be the very thing that will help other 9/11 volunteers get help for illnesses they develop in the future.
Community liaison Yehuda Kaploun volunteered at Ground Zero for 48 hours immediately after the attack, wearing the shirt as he watched Fire Department chaplain Mychal Judge die in a building collapse.
The volunteer kept his contaminated shirt packed in a sealed plastic bag until last week, when the garment was send to RJ Lee Group laboratories for testing. And analyzed portions of his shirt collar reveal a chilling concentration of chrysotile asbestos - 93,000 times higher than the average typically found in the environment in U.S. cities. That appears to be even higher than what the EPA said was found in the most contaminated, blown-out building after 9/11.
Testing also revealed the shirt was contaminated with zinc, mercury, antimony, barium, chromium, cobalt, copper, lead and molybdenum. Tons of the heavy metals were pulverized and burned in the debris in fires that raged for four months.
On 9/11, Kaploun was a 35-year-old liaison between the Police and Fire departments and the Orthodox Jewish community, as well as a part-time Hatzolah Ambulance volunteer. He said he doesn't really know why he tucked the shirt away two days after the terror attacks. "But something told me that it was loaded with stuff - and it goes to show you how very wrong these people were whom we trusted," he said. "I remember coming home, and you know what, I was going to give the shirt to the cleaners, and then somehow, for some reason, I didn't.
"If my shirt and I can do something to help these people who were there for weeks and months on end - and if this is the kind of numbers needed that will help and support their cases - then that's the blessing."
Although Kaploun may have saved his shirt in honor of the heroic efforts he saw that day, he hopes it may ultimately turn out to be the very thing that will help other 9/11 volunteers get help for illnesses they develop in the future.
posted by VOS IZ NEIAS @ 4/09/2006 07:59:00 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home