When New York Newspaper Guild President Barry Lipton put out a call for people who had been exposed to the toxic and psycho- logical horrors of the World Trade Center destruction, about 30 of our Local’s 50 respondents were from Standard & Poor’s.

Which, of course, isn’t surprising considering our proximity to Ground Zero. 

A similar query will be distributed to other Communications Workers of America affiliated locals in the area and CWA officials have estimated their responses will exceed 3,000. 

The outreach to the individuals who were exposed to what Lipton called “a witch’s brew of fuels” caused when planes plummeted into the WTC and the program that will follow was organized by Consumers Union First Vice Chairperson Deborah Wallace and her husband, Rodrick Wallace, an epidemiologist at the New York State Psychiatric Institute. 

Deborah, who is a senior project leader in home environment for Consumer Reports, is also on the research faculty at Columbia University and an ecologist for the Children’s Center of Environmental Health and has done studies concerning firefighters who battled the New York Telephone blaze in 1975 and people who survived the MGM Grand Hotel fire. 

Aware that the airplanes – with their 30,000 gallons of jet fuel each - and the buildings they crashed into both contained large amounts of plastics, and the buildings’ collapse unleashed asbestos, fiber glass, insulation, metal powder and cement dust, Deborah realized the mixture provided a potential health danger to any who breathed it. 

And she’s aware the physical dangers don’t necessarily outweigh the trauma and sheer fright of having witnessed the destruction. 

“I went to Barry and said we have to see what is going on with these people and see that their needs are being fulfilled,” Deborah commented.

Supplied with at least a partial list of potential victims from the original query (you still may contact Barry by e-mail at barryguild@aol.com, the next step will be to set up some focus groups, each group hopefully a cross-section of 10 to 12 people who will talk about their concerns and give them a ranking, prioritizing them. 

Following those meetings, Deborah and a handful of volunteers will be sending out a more detailed questionnaire, probably to be responded to anonymously at first, about the physical and mental symptoms people are experiencing. 

Then, there will be larger studies that will include lung- function testing and blood tests to determine which chemicals have been inhaled. 

Proper referrals will then be made and follow-ups will be conducted. 

“We intend to be in this for the long term,” Deborah vowed.