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9/11 Health Program Failed to Help Workers

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Sep 10, 2005 3:34 pm US/Eastern

9/11 Health Program Failed to Help Workers

Screenings to monitor federal employees at the WTC site accomplished little

WASHINGTON (AP) ―

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A federal probe has concluded that a program to monitor the health of federal employees at the World Trade Center disaster site in New York "accomplished little" even though city and state programs have screened more than 30,000 people.

A report by the Government Accountability Office found the health screening program only conducted about 400 exams. That's a small fraction of the thousands of federal employees who worked on the hazardous debris pile in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The GAO's findings were to be presented today at a special congressional hearing in New York City, but the hearing has been postponed. The agency is expected to formally release the findings Monday.

The GAO determined that the federal worker screening program established by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services "has accomplished little, completing screenings of less than 400 of the thousands of federal responders."

The study was requested by Representative Christopher Shays, a Republican from Connecticut, and Representative Carolyn Maloney, a Manhattan Democrat. For years, they have complained the federal government has not shown the necessary attention to possible long-term health problems from work at ground zero.

It has been known for some time that the government cut short the federal worker screening program, but the GAO report suggests part of the reason for that may have been uncertainty about what to do with the results.

Maloney charged the government stopped the program because it feared the findings.

Unlike the federal government, both the city and state screened large numbers of their employees.