FEDS PROPOSE ADDING 50 TYPES OF CANCER TO 9/11 HEALTH BILL VOLUME 25, NUMBER 1
JUNE 13-26, 2012
B Y ALI NE REYNOLDS n a sweeping announcement made on Fri., June 8, the federal government proposed adding 50 forms of cancer to the list of treatable illnesses covered by the James L. Zadroga 9/11 Health & Compensation Act. Cancer of the colon, liver and thyroid as well as certain respiratory and blood forms of the disease, are among the host of cancers that are up for inclusion, according to a document the Zadroga Act’s administrator Dr. John Howard has released. Howard’s decision was largely influenced by the recommendations made by the Scientific/ Technical Advisory Committee (S.T.A.C.), a group of health experts and Downtown advocates that advised treatment of some 50 cancer types to be federally funded. The proposal, if enacted, would provide nationally subsidized coverage to cancer-stricken Downtown residents, workers and students, in addition to first responders from outside the area who inhaled Ground Zero toxins during the clean-up effort. Prior to this latest announcement, Howard had vetoed adding cancer to the Zadroga Act, citing insufficient medical evidence to do so in an initial review published last July. Howard justified his determination in a June 8 letter addressed to U.S. Congressman Jerrold Nadler. “We recognize the serious impact cancer has had on responders, survivors and their loved ones,” he wrote. “I accepted the S.T.A.C.’s
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WATER RACE AROUND THE WORLD
Downtown Express photo by Terese Loeb Kreuzer
Sailboats from the Manhattan Sailing Club were joined in Battery Park City’s North Cove Marina on Sun., June 3 by several 68-foot ocean racing yachts as part of an around-the-world yacht race.
Dems speak out against “war on women”
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REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK BY S A M S P O K O N Y merica’s culture wars can often become so entangled in rhetoric that the basic issues are lost in a heap of politics. But when it comes to women’s rights, Congressman Jerrold Nadler, representing
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New York’s eighth Congressional district, doesn’t hesitate to remind his constituents — or anyone else — exactly what he’s doing in the plainest terms. “This is a war, and we’ve got to win it,” said Nadler, addressing a group convened by the Lower Manhattan Democrats (L.M.D.) club on Greenwich Street on Tues., May 29. Nadler was referring to what he and many political allies have called the “war
on women,” which Democrats consider to include a wide array of recent attacks on equal rights legislation, abortion and contraceptive use by politicians across the aisle. At the L.M.D. meeting, Nadler was joined by Sonia Ossorio, president of the NYC branch of the National Organization for Women (N.O.W.). While both Nadler and Continued on page 17
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HARRY POTTER, CONDENSED. TURN TO YOUTH , PAGE 26.