A lawyer representing thousands of 9/11 cancer victims is warning residents of East Palestine to ignore hasty assurances from government officials that it is safe to return home and that they fear the disaster will cause a ” explosion of cancers”.
Michael Barasch is the leading advocate for first responders at Ground Zero and for anyone who has breathed the toxic dust from where the towers stood in the eight months following the atrocity.
To date, 69 different types of cancer have been linked to the attacks, including some that are only now being diagnosed.
In an interview with DailyMail.com on Wednesday, he spoke of his alarm over a toxic train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, and hasty assurances from the EPA that it was safe for residents to return home.
‘When I heard the EPA say that the water is safe to drink and the air is safe to breathe, I literally had chills down my neck.
‘Those are the exact words EPA used 21 years ago when trying to reassure central New Yorkers that it was safe to go back to work or school, so first responders would be at the Pit. it was not
Michael Barasch is the leading advocate for first responders at Ground Zero and for anyone who has breathed the toxic dust from where the towers stood in the eight months following the atrocity.
A New York City firefighter surveying the damage after 9/11. Thousands of people who were in the area that day and over the following months were diagnosed with cancer and respiratory diseases.
‘I’m afraid we’re going to see an explosion of cancers if the parallels are what I think they are in another 10, 15, 20 years.
“It’s really going to be heartbreaking to see what happens to this community.”
Barasch, who was diagnosed with and beat prostate cancer after the towers fell, lamented how officials rushed Wall Street back to lower Manhattan to keep the New York Stock Exchange afloat in 2001 after the terrorist attack will send the markets into a free fall.
In Eastern Palestine, there is no such urgency.
“They wanted to reopen Wall Street, they had an ulterior motive, they wanted to make sure everyone was calm. Here, there is no ulterior motive, it is just a knee-jerk reaction: “stay in your homes, everything will be fine. Do not panic.”
Well, sorry to disagree. I think you should be very scared.
‘What is that phrase from the movie: be afraid, be very afraid? Err on the side of caution.
‘Take care of your families and get out of there until we have real, independent scientific knowledge that this will be safe.
‘I know it’s not easy, many of these people can’t afford to go to a hotel. But they have to protect their families.
Norfolk Southern, the rail company whose train derailed, has so far been paying displaced residents for alternative accommodation.
But Barasch says they can’t be trusted to tell people when it’s safe to go home, and that Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency is also somewhat to blame.
The site of the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, on February 4. The train was carrying toxic materials when it crashed.
“I see the fumes in the air, I’ve seen the bubbling water, it’s easy for me to tell from the safety of lower Manhattan, but it sure reminds me of what lower Manhattan looked like when those two towers fell,” Barasch said. from the city of East Palestine, shown above on February 6
“I wouldn’t trust (Norfolk Southern) or their scientists alone to say ‘it’s safe now.'” They are facing huge liability claims.
‘It’s too early to tell how big this could be. Just protect yourself and don’t just trust the EPA.’
Barasch was working in the same downtown office he has now when the towers fell.
Since then, he said he has lost two colleagues to cancers related to the tragedy.
‘At the time of 9/11 it was two blocks away, we went back to our office because the EPA told us not to worry, it’s safe. Within a dozen years my secretary Liana died of breast cancer at age 47, my paralegal Dennis also at age 47 died of kidney cancer.
‘I am a prostate cancer survivor. My secretary Barbara has lymphoma, my partner Barry has skin cancer. This is just a small office.
“It was really deadly toxins that we were exposed to, very similar to what people in eastern Palestine are exposed to now.”
He fears that the first diseases to show up will be blood or skin cancers, but they may take several years to show up.
East Palestine Mayor Trent Conaway with lieutenant governors and other officials drinking tap water to try to reassure residents it is safe to return
Jeff Zalick wipes a tear outside a newly opened clinic as he talks about fears of returning home after the February 3 Norfolk Southern train derailment in eastern Palestine.
Neil Figley, 28, holds his daughter, Harlie, 4, as he waits in line at the South Norfolk Assistance Center to cash a $1,000 check for reimbursement for expenses while they were evacuated after a train derailment causing health problems on February 17, 2023 in East Palestine, Ohio
He wants Congress to now establish a health care fund for victims, which is similar to the World Trade Center Health Program. The program is open to anyone who has been in the area of the tower collapse for eight months after 9/11, and not just first responders who helped clean up the wreckage.
There are also concerns about how far the damage from the train derailment in eastern Palestine and the subsequent burning of chemicals might have gone.
The governor of Pennsylvania, which sits just a mile from the eastern Palestinian border, has demanded a criminal investigation into Norfolk Southern.
‘The wind blew west across Pennsylvania and into western New York state. Those people have real cause for concern, as do the people who drink water in the surrounding area.
‘From what I understand, the Ohio basin, the water travels to the Mississippi.
“We need scientists we trust to test this and tell us if it’s safe or it’s only safe after boiling or it’s only safe after filtering, whatever.
‘Don’t treat us like children and say ‘Oh, we don’t want to scare the residents’, no, we can take it. What we cannot accept are lies,” Barasch said.
There has been widespread condemnation of President Biden’s nonchalant response to the catastrophe.
The president has yet to comment publicly on the disaster, let alone visit the city, but he called Poland’s mayor yesterday after coming under fire for his mediocre response.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is visiting today. He announced his visit after former President Donald Trump announced plans to travel there himself.
The president has yet to comment publicly on the disaster, let alone visit the city, but he called Poland’s mayor yesterday after coming under fire for his mediocre response.