{"id":139267,"date":"2014-09-15T13:26:48","date_gmt":"2014-09-15T13:26:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=139267"},"modified":"2014-09-15T13:26:48","modified_gmt":"2014-09-15T13:26:48","slug":"government-continues-ignore-911-first-responders-toxic-exposure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/government-continues-ignore-911-first-responders-toxic-exposure\/","title":{"rendered":"Government Continues To Ignore 9\/11 First Responder’s Toxic Exposure"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tess Pennington<\/em><\/p>\n

There were a unique group of people that emerged during 9\/11. They were the ones who, instead of running away from the attacks, were running towards it. They were the helpers. They were the ones working for days trying to dig victims out of the debris. They were the ones who worked at ground zero trying to help emergency response units. They were the ones setting up missing persons areas.<\/p>\n

As many of you know, I\u00a0worked\u00a0at the American Red Cross during September 11, 2001. An hour after the first terrorist attacks, my chapter became the headquarters for dealing with aftermath. I, along with many of my colleagues requested temporary transfers to ground zero to help volunteer in any way we could.\u00a0Although my\u00a0transfer was not approved, my best friend, Sue along with a few others in my chapter were. Their\u00a0altruistic natures led them into unchartered territory. They had no idea what they were going to see or what the working\u00a0conditions would\u00a0be.<\/p>\n

When they arrived in New York, the dust cloud had not yet settled and a fire was still smoldering deep in the rubble. When asked about breathing in the dust, they were advised that it was not dangerous and masks were not required (something she would later regret). Tents were set up near ground zero in order to better serve the emergency personnel and organizations. Sue spent two weeks volunteering in New York where she worked 10 hour days assisting the first responders and ate many of her meals near the site.<\/p>\n

More Than 1,100 People Who Worked or Lived Near the World Trade Center on 9\/11 Have Been Diagnosed With Cancer<\/h3>\n

Five years after she\u00a0came back from volunteering in New York, she began having immense pain in her hips and legs. She was lethargic and a little frightened at what the doctors would say. Further testing indicated that she had a rare form of blood cancer called multiple myeloma, which multiplies the body\u2019s plasma cells to dangerous levels. She is also prone to suffering\u00a0debilitating fractures and other bone disorders, severe side effects of certain treatments,\u00a0and all of this causing a significant impact in the cost of health care.<\/p>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tess Pennington There were a unique group of people that emerged during 9\/11. They were the ones who, instead of running away from the attacks, were running towards it. They were the helpers. They were the ones working for days trying to dig victims out of the debris. They were the ones who worked at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":139268,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487,1616],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-139267","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news","8":"category-usa-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139267\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}