Environment, Science, Society

A Leading Cause of NYPD Officer Deaths Is 9-11 Related Illnesses

By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor

215px-NypdpatchThe 9/11 terrorist attack on New York City continues to affect the lives of many, especially those first responders who dared the situation and served with courage and Honor.

The tragedy manifests in manners that are beyond the emotional scars that might remain with individuals. The health effects to the body may persist for many more years. Inhaling of and exposure to toxins and carcinogens in their various forms continue to haunt the New York Police Department and other agencies more than a decade later.

According to the Officer Down Memorial Page, a website devoted to memorializing the line-of-duty deaths of all law enforcement officers serving in the United States and its territories, 9/11 related illnesses are the second leading cause of death among officers of the New York Police Department. This encompasses over two hundred years of records for each of the various single categories.


The memorials include all the former agencies either merged or formed into the NYPD. The leading cause of death for NYPD and its predecessors is gunfire at 324. 9/11 Related Illnesses were second at 71. The Terror Attack itself caused 24 direct fatalities among NYPD. These statistics do not include other agencies such as ATF which also has 9/11 related illness deaths.

More distressingly, since the first reported 9/11 Related Illness death on May 3rd, 2003 the number of these deaths is over three times the number of all other causes of death combined: 71 compared with 20. From that date forward, 9/11 Related Illnesses is the leading cause of death and likely could be into the near future.

Conditions affecting 9/11 first responders and rescue workers include Pulmonary Fibrosis, Cancers, Multiple Myeloma, and other ailments.

New York’s Finest and Bravest made sacrifices in devoting days, weeks, and months in recovery duties to return loved ones or remains back to their families after the collapse of the twin towers. And for their service some have given their lives and more continue to suffer from their injuries. They should be Honored and remembered.

By Darren Smith

Source: The Officer Down Memorial Page

The views expressed in this posting are the author’s alone and not those of the blog, the host, or other weekend bloggers. As an open forum, weekend bloggers post independently without pre-approval or review. Content and any displays or art are solely their decision and responsibility.

54 thoughts on “A Leading Cause of NYPD Officer Deaths Is 9-11 Related Illnesses”

  1. Karen S …. victims who develop sequential and coincidental afflictions are not that hard to identify by qualified personnel. It is the coincidence and related infirmities that point the real out from the nonsense. The incidence of fraud should not impeded the obvious. That is why Sonia’s experiences, (emphasis on the plural) as related at least, should be a no brainer for the authorities. I suspect there is a layer or two of no-nothing bureaucrats between the inform and the medical people….of course, that’s my favorite nemesis…no nothing bureaucrats. The moment when a series of organically identifiable problems occur, it should all be handled by doctors not bureaucrats.

  2. We were told by the boosh administration that Osma bin Laden masterminded the events of 9/11 – from his comfortable digs inside a Tora Tora mountain cave, armed with a satellite telephone. If that was all true, then we’re talkin’ about a genius. And since most of the customers here believe (have faith in) the Official fairy tale, then that must mean that the COO of 9/11, Dick Cheney, is every it as smart as OBL. Smarter, because the lies worked, and they claim that Osama was murdered a few years back – despite news reports that he died in December, 2001.

  3. That is so sad. I recall during the footage of 9/11, wondering what the long term effects would be of inhaling all that insulation, debris dust, and toxic dust. I heard the Search and Rescue dogs suffered, too, with their noses in that dust.

    It is a real shame that the bad apples who commit fraud cause so many problems for the heroes who stepped up and helped that day, and for those who got out alive.

    What is difficult is that it takes time to track the long term health effects of such a city wide exposure. The initial events are difficult to trace with certainty, can take decades to manifest, and there can be confounding variables such as smoking, genetics, and other unrelated exposure to toxins. There are certain illnesses that are likely the result of 9/11, but what about all the other ones that may be due to 9/11 but more difficult to prove? Do victims have the time for all the empirical evidence to be hashed out?

    I hope they weed out the fraud but take care of those who were affected. The first responders, volunteers, and people on the street helping each other were heroes.

  4. Dang it…I meant “Sonia” not “Sonai”…sorry for the careless posting of your name.

  5. Sonai….your descriptions and story are precisely the empirical information I’d want to know to determine event caused infirmary. Your descriptions cover multiple events and exposures that cannot be dismissed as coincidental…they in fact point to cause and effect. I hope your battle with the authorities turns out better than it has so far….it is sad that fraud by a relative few can harm so many.

  6. Since we’re extrapolating tiny samples of claimants as indicative of all claimants, here a claimant falsely accused of fraud. Under the tenuous logic of the right-wing whacks around here this obviously proves that all claimantss are not frauds merely they are falsely accused of being so. It’s fun being silly. Too bad people’s lives get affected in the process of the innuendo and glittering generality game.

    http://www.recordonline.com/article/20140930/News/409300326

    1. mespo – I had a friend (now dead) who had spina bifida. You can look that up. He was on SSI. Once every 5 years he was required by Social Security to be examined by a doctor to prove that somehow miraculously he had not been cured of spina bifida. Once you look it up, you will see how silly this is. So, if it was good enough for someone who was born with a debilitating birth defect, it is good enough for a 9/11 First Responder.

  7. Paul:

    “NYC is a hotbed of disability fraud.”

    *******************

    First the South, now NYC. Can you provide us a map of areas you believe are composed of upstanding folks like you so we can cite them? Color-coded please.

    1. mespo – I only know about NYC because I get both the Times and the Post. They both have reported on the public pension fraud going on where they add disability to the pension. BTW, it is your buddy Inga who condemns the South, not me.

  8. This is seriously disturbing on so many levels. The naysayers point out those that committed fraud. Because of them, many First Responders, Recovery Workers, Volunteers, etc., have to pay the price and prove that their illnesses are real. I don’t know how any one can fake cancer, pulmonary fibrosis, gerd etc. I LOST MY KIDNEY TO CANCER. I WAS THERE. I WAS NOT A FIRST RESPONDER. I WAS RECOVERY. I VOLUNTEERED. My husband, a retired NYPD officer for 30 years is now one of those who has come down with cancer and lung diseases, not to mention gerd, skin rashes, Sleep apnea and PTSD. He’s never been sick a day in his life and several years after 9/11 he has all of these health issues…. I’ve seen a six foot tall, healthy man, who used to weigh 220 pounds, turn into a man who now hunches over because of pain and is now 170 pounds. He has to fight to get his medications paid. He did not retire on disability and now because he is ill he has to fight to get disability. FRAUD??!! SHame on those of you who feel the need to discredit those that are sincerely ill. Apparently you weren’t there on 9/11 and thereafter to see what they all had to see and live with that 14 years later. SHAME ON YOU! And thanks to all who have stood up for those that are ill.

    1. Sonia – NYC is a hotbed of disability fraud. The first responders did magnificent work and, as I have said before, if they got sick from doing work on 9/11, they are due disability pay. However, since it is NYC I think the authorities need to be cautious about claims.

  10. You know what? I cannot say what caused what illnesses derived from the 9/11 events. What I do know is that I’ve been on and in several emergency response activities that involved traipsing through, & digging around in, demolished buildings, often in large cities. I’ve also worked on encapsulating frayed asbestos on large vessels. I developed lung cancer, twice, both re-missed, so can I file a claim? How would I know?

    I wouldn’t know so I’d not seek a claim. Beyond that, in my younger days in a skilled trade, I used pure cyanide on cherry red steel (it appears “white” through dark blue glasses you use for that wok) to “case harden” it in specific locations…the bottles were on all of our benches or tool kits. Why did I not develop a cyanide related infirmary? One of my co-workers did die from cyanide poisoning..but he put a spoonful on his sandwich and it was a suicide (one night when working rather late & alone)….insurance still paid off on it…citing a work place hazard.

    After that, we all had to hide our bottles of cyanide powder. Just like we had to hide out bottles of gasoline and trichloroethylene, two of the very few solvents that leave no residue upon use on high tolerance bearings and such. Both can legitimately be considered hazardous. Safe practices is how you avoid ill consequence….sort of like with firearms. Heh heh…

    For me to give credibility to work place hazard infirmary claims I would have to have a lot more empirical evidence than incidental exposure. Put me in Chuck Stanley’s corner on this one. YMMV…

  11. “Connecting The Dots – Zionists & 911″
    “Periodicals like Popular Mechanics, edited by a cousin of US Homeland Security head, Michael Chertoff, mouthed the official (Zionist) version of events. According to every New York periodical, Islamic terrorists hijacked the planes.”

    1. Patriot – you are going to bring us a link from Jeff Rense, noted anti-Semite?

  14. Large airliners melt into buildings. Sure they did. One went completely thru the steel and glass tower and actually came out the other side! Sure thing. Why, they even showed it on the teevee. One time. BBC announced that BLDG 7 had collapsed, when it could still be seen standing tall and proud — before Larry “Pull it” okayed the demolition of it.

    Anyone who has made even a modest effort to study 9/11 knows it was an inside job/false flag operation.

    1. Bill McWilliams – you still haven’t answered my last question about a false flag operation. Until you answer that one, we are going no where on this claim.

  15. “A “hundred bogus claims” is not something to scoff at, unless you’re a govt. official, or a govt. groupie. But hell, these are just some cops who would probably kill an unarmed black youth if the continued on the job, so what’s the big deal?”

    The first sentence is spot-on.

    I get the sarcasm in the second, but it’s absurd nonetheless. The problem is picking victims. This post makes it clear that DS is picking victims. Of course, first respondents losing their lives is tragic. And the lingering effects of this terror attack (both at home and abroad) are cruel.

  17. This is tragic. It reminds me of the recent stories on France’s nuclear tests in Algeria and the effects it’s now having on communities across the country. Or what about our attacks in East Timor or Japan. Some children don’t even get the chance to be brave or fine because their fate was sealed by our own terrorist attacks.

  20. On CSPAN: Architects and Engineers Explain Why 9/11 was a Controlled Demolition Event
    3 TOWERS WERE DESTROYED BY CONTROLLED DEMOLITION ON 9/11
    Interview with architect Richard Gage representing 2200 Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth
    U.S. Governments / Courts / Media are Covering Up Evidence of this Mass Murder and Maiming
    They are complicit. This issue exposes the wide and deep corruption of the governments, courts and media
    Which means more to you, your money or your country and freedom?
    Those who surrender freedom for security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one — Benjamin Franklin

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