Children exposed to World Trade Center dust are at much higher risk for respiratory problems, according to a New York City Health Department survey. The survey of the 3,100 children who are enrolled in the city's World Trade Center Health Registry found that being caught in the dust cloud in the immediate aftermath of 9-11 was the single biggest risk factor in developing respiratory problems. Half of all children enrolled in the registry developed a new or worsening breathing problem. But those who were caught in the massive dust plume were diagnosed with asthma at double the rate of those who were not. (Newsday, Nov. 29)

Politicians and labor leaders held a rally at Ground Zero Sept. 8 in support of efforts to get federal funding for first responders, construction workers, volunteers, residents, and students exposed to health risks in the 9-11 attacks and their aftermath. On the sixth anniversary of that day, three New York Congressman––Democrats Carolyn Maloney and Jerrold Nadler, and Republican Vito Fossella––are to introduce the 9-11 Health and Compensation Act, which would provide healthcare and monitoring to all those exposed to the environment of downtown Manhattan after the attacks.

The Indo-Asian News Service is justly proud of Bhairavi Desai of the New York Taxi Workers' Alliance in this Sept. 5 account. New York City is fast becoming a laboratory for the new surveillance state, and the heroic taxi drivers are in the vanguard of the resistance:

Bhairavi Desai leads taxi strike in New York
Fewer taxis were seen on the roads in New York and it was taking longer to hail one as the two-day strike by a section of the city's 13,000 cab drivers started on Wednesday morning. Drivers of yellow cabs—about 60 per cent of them are South Asian—have been protesting the installation of GPS software and credit card readers by the government.

After last month's deadly Con Ed blast, another eerie sense of deja vu for jittery New Yorkers—this one cutting even closer to home. From AP via Newsday, Aug. 20:

Investigators probe cause in fire that killed 2 NYC firefighters
NEW YORK - Fire marshals went back into a condemned ground zero skyscraper Monday in hopes of learning more about a blaze that killed two firefighters as details emerged about numerous unsafe working conditions at the troubled demolition site.

The carcinogen asbestos has been found in dust and debris hurled into midtown Manhattan by an evening rush-hour Con Edison steam pipe explosion July 18. The blast at 41st Street and Lexington Ave. opened a 25-foot car-swallowing crater in the asphalt and sent a column of steam hundreds of feet into the air—initially sparking fears of a terrorist attack. Said witness Debbie Tontodonato to Newsday: "We panicked. I think everyone thought the worst. Thank God it wasn't." But this statement just demonstrates how much horror New Yorkers have come to view as acceptable in this uneasy age. Forty-four were injured in the blast, and Lois Baumerich, of Hawthorne, NJ, died of cardiac arrest.

This reminds us of an old R. Cobb cartoon. From the New York Times, July 9:

New York Plans Surveillance Veil for Downtown
By the end of this year, police officials say, more than 100 cameras will have begun monitoring cars moving through Lower Manhattan, the beginning phase of a London-style surveillance system that would be the first in the United States.

From the New York Times, June 21:

WASHINGTON, June 20 — Federal environmental officials misled Lower Manhattan residents about the extent of contamination in their condominiums and apartments after the collapse of the World Trade Center, according to a preliminary report released on Wednesday by the Government Accountability Office.

Calling a nuclear or radiological strike against New York "the ultimate nightmare scenario," New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, speaking at a DC conference on nuclear terrorism June 13, called upon Congress to pay the full $40 million price tag for a ring of radiation detectors on major arteries leading into the city. Calling the "Securing the Cities" Homeland Security pilot program "our best, last defense to keep a nuclear or dirty bomb from being detonated in New York City," Kelly asserted: "Indeed, the worldwide proliferation of the materials needed to make such weapons leads many to believe that such a scenario is a matter of when, not if."