8/6/2019 DNAinfo - Zadroga Bill Coverage Expands North to Reade Street

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Zadroga Bill Coverage Expands North to Reade Street

Regulations proposed on Tuesday would expand the area of people eligible under the Zadroga Bill to those who live on Reade

Street south.

By Kareem Johnson

DNAInfo Reporter/Producer

LOWER MANHATTAN A new federal proposal will expand the area of those eligible for funds from the Zadroga 9/11 Health and

Compensation Act.

The $2.7 billion fund was created for first responders and volunteers who were sickened at Ground Zero on September 11. The new

expanded area includes the area of Reade Street south between the Hudson and East rivers, the Daily News reported on

Wednesday.

Special Master Sheila Birnbaum released the regulation proposal 34 days after her appointment.

Over the past month, I have received invaluable input from the many individuals I have met with, and I hope to meet with manymore over the coming months, Birnbaum said in a statement. Among other things, the new regulations propose a process bywhich claimants from the first VCF [Victims Compensation Fund] can amend their claims to reflect new injuries, and also provide forthe VCF to cover additional diseases as scientific knowledge evolves.

We applaud the proposal to expand the boundaries of the area to Lower Manhattan south of Reade Street between the two rivers.It is only fair, it is only right that the Lower Manhattan and workers and residents exposed to smoke and other particulates from thecollapse of the towers on September 11, 2001 and in the aftermath be included in the coverage, Community Board 1 ChairpersonJulie Menin said in a statement. We also hope that cancer will be added to the list of conditions covered by the 9/11 Health Act, butthe geographic expansion of coverage is an important victory for our community.

The FeelGood Foundation echoed Menins statement, adding, Although we are disheartened that cancers will not be presumptively

covered under the VCF, we will continue our lobbying efforts for inclusion of various cancers as recognized 9/11 related illnesses. We firmly believe that the medical evidence will soon establish what we, the First Responder community,already know, that variousforms of cancer have been caused by our exposure to the toxins at Ground Zero.

State Representatives Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), and Peter King (R-NY), authors of H.R. 847 issued a joint

statement on the proposed regulations.

Thousands of 9/11 responders and survivors have been waiting to be compensated for their injuries, so we applaud Ms. Birnbaumsefforts to release these draft regulations for public comment so quickly indeed,

only 34 days after she was appointed.

The release

of these draft regulations begins the complicated and difficult process of implementing the Zadroga law and delivering long-overdue

help to those in need.

The proposed regulations will be open for public comment for 45 days.

It is important that the Special Master hear from the people who have become ill since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, to hear their storiesand struggles so that they may be taken into account in the final draft of these rules, the Foundation said.