More than 10 years
after the attack on the World Trade Centre, New Yorkers are still developing
illnesses that may be related to the disaster.
In 2004, the original fund for the injured and bereaved was closed after
paying out $7 billion.
The collapse of
the buildings had released a toxic cloud
of glass fibres, asbestos, lead, pulverised cement and assorted carcinogens,
but just days after, the Environmental Protection Agency said the air in lower
Manhattan was safe.
As people
continued to fall ill, in 2010, the fund was reopened, but it did not cover cancer. Firemen, police officers and former pupils
at a school near the site are among those who have been diagnosed, but it is
hard to prove their illnesses are directly related to the disaster.
In March, an
advisory committee suggested cancer should be covered, but it is not clear for
how long this would extend. As
with Hiroshima and Chernobyl, for some, it might be years more before tumours
appear. There are also complaints that victims of
other American disasters, such as the Oklahoma City bombing and Hurricane
Katrina, were not nearly so generously compensated.
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