The events of September 11th 2001 shocked the world. Thousands of people lost their lives and a whole country mourned. But amongst the devastation thousands and thousands of emergency responders headed to the rubble of the World Trade Centre to aid survivors and clear the debris. Years later the destruction of the Twin Towers is still affecting thousands of people who were at the scene.
This is because a large part of one of the towers had been built using asbestos – when the two collapsed about a thousand tons of the stuff would have been let loose into the environment. It is hard to estimate just how far the asbestos fibres could have travelled, but hundreds of thousands of people have potentially breathed in these toxic fibres that cause mesothelioma.
Mesothelioma is an awful cancer that affects the internal organs and offers little hope for optimism. Five years after the attack someone who had been at the World Trade Centre died of mesothelioma – the evidence overwhelmingly suggests that it was her presence at Ground Zero that led to the cancer.
While it is regrettable that deaths resulting from mesothelioma are not surprising, it is unusual that they have started occurring so suddenly after asbestos exposure. Most people first start to see the effects of asbestos exposure 20-50 years later. The sudden onset of mesothelioma in this case is indicative of just how much asbestos was released into the atmosphere. In the years that have followed since, many more people have died of the cancer.
The terrorist attack made headlines around the world, and heads of states lined up to condemn the actions. Ten years later the world has not forgotten about the attacks, but the people suffering now are largely unheard. Arguments are being made about whether mesothelioma compensation claims should be paid by the state of New York or the Government directly, while those who were at the site worry about whether they could have been affected by the exposure to asbestos.
Asbestos compensation claims are on the rise in the UK due to the increased awareness of the symptoms of Asbestos.
