Sep 11, 2006 6:39 pm US/Eastern
Giuliani Says He May Have Suffered From 9/11 Smoke
NEW YORK (AP) ―
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Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani. (AP)
AP
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Hundreds of first responders were subject to air quality which CBS 2 has learned was very dangerous.
CBS
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Former EPA head Christie Whitman and former mayor Rudy Giuliani are locked in a war of words over air quality issues at ground zero.
Former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said Monday that his health and the health of his wife and his aides could have suffered from exposure to toxic smoke from the burning World Trade Center five years ago.
"I spent as much time here as anyone. She did. She did," Giuliani said, indicating his wife, Judith, and his spokeswoman, Sunny Mindel. "Joe Lhota did, and Joe got ill. Rudy Washington did and Rudy clearly got sick as a result of Sept. 11.
"We're going to have a get-together tonight with all the people that we kind of survived with. And I'll check with them. I'll see. I'm sure that some of these people are going to have symptoms, and maybe it's not now. They're going to have them five years from now or 10 years from now. And they should be taken care of."
Giuliani spoke to reporters after presenting checks totaling $60,000 to trade center victims' charities from former New York Giants head coach Jim Fassel's foundation.
He referred to Lhota and Washington, two deputy mayors during his administration. Washington initially was denied a workers' compensation claim for illnesses stemming from his work at ground zero. The city later backtracked and said it would pay his claim.
Giuliani said anyone whose health suffered from work at the trade center site is "entitled to the same support, the same assistance and the same help that the families got who lost loved ones here."
Asked about former federal Environmental Protection Agency head Christine Todd Whitman's recent assertions that responsibility for providing masks to workers on the debris pile lay with the city, Giuliani said, "We certainly gave people instructions that they should wear masks."
"I was here five, six times a day for four months," Giuliani said. "I kind of thought of it as living here. And there were times when I wore a mask when you got near the pile. Times when I didn't. Those were the instructions. I don't remember that from EPA though. What I remember from Christie Whitman is her saying that the air was fine."
He added, "Instead of wasting time in finger-pointing, time should be devoted to figuring out how to get people the benefits, the help and the assistance they need."
Earlier Monday, Giuliani said the Sept. 11 attacks did not emerge as the first in a deadly series, and that itself is a victory.
"Thank God we're safe," Giuliani said as he stood near St. Paul's Chapel, steps from ground zero. "What I anticipated on Sept. 11 was that we would be attacked many times between then and now, and we haven't been."
Still, the former mayor warned: "We are vulnerable. They are going to attack us again, and we have to be prepared for it."
(© 2006 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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