Last month recognized the 10 year anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan. In addition to the killing and destruction that occured on that day, another result has been the poor health of many the first responders and clean-up workers who worked at the Ground Zero site thereafter. Problems such as death, cancer, and respiratory illnesses have been on the rise for those who were breathing in that tainted air around that time.
I remember the offical government word back in 2001 was that the air was not a danger to the workers nor the residents down in that area, but something about the flames and smoke with burning gasoline/asbestos/paint/concrete/metals just didn't seem like something one would want to get into their lungs. A few weeks after the incident, perhaps around mid-October of 2001, I ended up speaking with a construction worker who drove a crane and was working at Ground Zero on a nightly basis. He was sitting down on a chair and didn't even have the energy to either stand up or make a fist with his hand. After a shift would be over, he said everyone else would go into a decompression chamber, of some sorts, which was supposed to remove all the toxins from the body and clothes. According to him that chamber didn't help much and he told me the air in the area was zapping all his energy away.
Another interesting story he told me was one time he was getting off his crane and he accidently walked the wrong route back to the depot and encountered a hidden area which contained bars of solid gold. Not nearly as much as Fort Knox or anything, but enough to have armed guards aim machine guns at his face and ask him what he was doing there. He explained his mishap and they let him go on his way back to the depot. His theory to me was since it took a while for them to move the gold out of the area, that was the reason TV cameras were not allowed close-up shots of the site initially, which makes sense looking back on the news coverage at the time. Since it was a world financial center, I'm guessing businesses or countries kept gold there on some of the floors for trading purposes, instead of dealing with other forms of currency. Gold is an international language.
I spoke to the guy for maybe 10 minutes the most and never saw him again, didn't even exchange names. I don't know what came of him, but I hope he's alright...
I remember the offical government word back in 2001 was that the air was not a danger to the workers nor the residents down in that area, but something about the flames and smoke with burning gasoline/asbestos/paint/concrete/metals just didn't seem like something one would want to get into their lungs. A few weeks after the incident, perhaps around mid-October of 2001, I ended up speaking with a construction worker who drove a crane and was working at Ground Zero on a nightly basis. He was sitting down on a chair and didn't even have the energy to either stand up or make a fist with his hand. After a shift would be over, he said everyone else would go into a decompression chamber, of some sorts, which was supposed to remove all the toxins from the body and clothes. According to him that chamber didn't help much and he told me the air in the area was zapping all his energy away.
Another interesting story he told me was one time he was getting off his crane and he accidently walked the wrong route back to the depot and encountered a hidden area which contained bars of solid gold. Not nearly as much as Fort Knox or anything, but enough to have armed guards aim machine guns at his face and ask him what he was doing there. He explained his mishap and they let him go on his way back to the depot. His theory to me was since it took a while for them to move the gold out of the area, that was the reason TV cameras were not allowed close-up shots of the site initially, which makes sense looking back on the news coverage at the time. Since it was a world financial center, I'm guessing businesses or countries kept gold there on some of the floors for trading purposes, instead of dealing with other forms of currency. Gold is an international language.
I spoke to the guy for maybe 10 minutes the most and never saw him again, didn't even exchange names. I don't know what came of him, but I hope he's alright...
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