dojN002539.xml

dojN002539.xml

born-digital

email

yes

no

2002-02-04

Kenneth L. Zwick, Director
Office of Management Programs
Civil Division
U.S. Department of Justice
Main Building, Room 3140
950 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20530

September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001
Special Master Kenneth Feinberg
Victimcomp.comments@usdoj.gov(encouraged delivery method)
Fax 301-519-5956(alternative delivery method)

Re: Smoke inhalation/Dust ingestion

Dear Special Master:

In relation to the rules of reference, you wrote: VICTIM COMPENSATION
FUND FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS C VOLUME 1 C (Updated January 10,
2002). In it, you posed to yourself the following question at paragraph 1.18:
1.18. What if I did not suffer a bodily injury but I inhaled smoke and dust, and was
covered with cinders and ash?
To be eligible, you must have received medical treatment within 24 hours and you must have
been hospitalized or suffered disability or disfigurement.

By stating in your question that the hypothetic victim "did not suffer a bodily injury", you
did not really pose a question, at least not a useful question. By definition, if the victim did not
suffer bodily harm, s/he is not entitled to compensation under this Law.

This hypothetic that you posed is useless. However, it manages to confuse the public as
well. You go on this question to state that the hypothetic victim inhaled smoke and dust. By
definition of the law, if the smoke and dust did not provoke bodily injury, the victim must receive
no compensation.

Yet, you must seriously guide and educate the victims. Members of our group, among
other perhaps, had prior conditions including heart surgery and ailments, and respiratory diseases
from asthma to asbestosis in different degrees. Properly cared, they lived useful normal lives.
The inhalation of the dust (smoke is an euphemism under these circumstances as it was not
produced solely by combustion) provoked medically diagnosed physical injury in some of these
persons. Serious damage flowed.

The dust produced by the air crashes and collapse of the buildings at the
World Trade Center was composed of ground-up mortar, polyvynils, polychlorinates,
PVCs, asbestos, incinerated bodies and human bones and other solid particles, toxic
and poisonous inside the chest cavities of the victims. Scientists and doctors agree

that-depending on the prior condition of the person-this dust produces the physical
harm of which some members in our group suffer after 9-11.

The statute under which you labor- Public Law 107-42- states, in relevant
part, that a person is eligible for the compensation under the law if two conditions
are met: that the person "(i) was present at the World Trade Center..." and "(ii)
suffered physical harm or death as a result of such an air crash." Physical harm
produced by this black dust is not excluded in this text.

You saluted this law as "an unprecedented expression of compassion on the
part of the American people to the victims and their families..." Your introduction
to the interim final rule acknowledges receiving comments from many
organizations. Notably, you do not mention any medical and scientific basis. Medical
scientific and psychiatric associations are in agreement that "physical harm" can
not be defined by what produced the physical injury. Each human being is different.

The federal medical institutions- from Center for Diseases Control to NIOSH
to the US Department of Health agree that respiratory and heart diseases are
physical harm.

Over 100 WTC victims and their families integrate the Hispanic Victims'
Self-Help Group. Some of them suffered physical harm from ingesting dust(or as
you seem to be calling it, inhaling smoke). Please make a question and answer that
defines clearly your policy so that the victims are treated with dignity and
compassion.

Comments by:

Hispanic Victims' Self-Help Group

2002-02-04