Ground Zero health crisis

Firefighters are deployed near the site of the World Trade Center in New York, Sept. 12, 2001. Screenings conducted by Mount Sinai Medical Center show that respiratory problems and mental health difficulties are widespread among rescue and recovery workers who worked at the World Trade Center in the days following the Sept. 11 attacks.

Firefighter John McNamara at ground zero. McNamara worked 500 hours in the recovery effort at the World Trade Center after Sept. 11, 2001. He developed colon cancer and died on Aug. 9, 2009.

Cops who have died of WTC-related illnesses, according to the 9/11 Police Aid Foundation. Top row: James Godbee, Patrice Ott, Kevin Hawkins, Michael Ryan, Sandra Adrian, Robert Williamson; 2nd row: Roberto Rivera, Edward Gilpin, Madeline Carlo, John Young, Robert Helmke, Fred Ghussin, James Zadroga, Edward Thompson; 3rd row: Thomas Brophy, Angelo Peluso, Claire Hanrahan, Cesar Borja, Ronald Weintraub, William Holfester.

Firefighter John McNamara holds his son Jack in an undated family photo. McNamara worked 500 hours in the recovery effort at the World Trade Center after Sept. 11, 2001. He developed colon cancer and died on Aug. 9, 2009.

Firefighter John McNamara with his son Jack in an undated family photo. McNamara worked 500 hours in the recovery effort at the World Trade Center after Sept. 11, 2001. He developed colon cancer and died on Aug. 9, 2009.

James Zadroga, a retired NYPD detective, holds an oxygen tank in one hand and his daughter Tylerann in the other. Zadroga, 34, died of a respiratory disease he contracted after working at ground zero. A bill bearing his name was introduced in the Senate in June, 2009 to help sick 9/11 responders.

NYPD Detective Robert Williamson at Ground Zero after the Sept. 11 attacks. Williamson, who worked for the elite Emergency Service Unit, died May 13, 2007, of pancreatic and lung cancer believed to be related to his work at Ground Zero.

Vincent Forras and then-NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani at ground zero. Forras spent several weeks digging through the debris at the disaster site. He now suffers from respiratory ailments, intense headaches, memory loss and insomnia.

Emergency medical technician Bonnie Giebfried, left, helps Marvin Bethea, a paramedic, hold up a poster detailing medications he has to take since working at Ground Zero during a news conference in front of Ground Zero, Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2006, in New York. Giebfried is among tens of thousands of responders and residents who have reported lingering illnesses from exposure to the toxic air at ground zero.

The Statue of Liberty, right, stands at the entrance to New York Harbor as smoke from the twin towers of the World Trade Center spews forth in this view from Jersey City, N.J., Sept. 11, 2001.

Then-New York Gov. George Pataki, left, then-New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, center, and then-Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., tour the site of the World Trade Center disaster in New York, Sept. 12, 2001.

An American flag is posted in the rubble of the World Trade Center Sept. 13, 2001, in New York.

Sister Emily Louise, who was living in the Sister Margaret House in New York's Wall Street area, wears an air filter mask as she walked home with food, in this Sept. 13, 2001 file photo. Masks were a common site in the downtown area of Manhattan following the collapse of the World Trade Center towers.

President Bush places his arm around firefighter Bob Beckwith while standing in front of the World Trade Center debris Sept. 14, 2001, in New York.

Welder Tom Magee is seen at ground zero in this undated photo. Magee, 48, broke his back after working 10 months in the ground zero cleanup effort. He now gets just $400 a week in workman's compensation.

9/11 first responder Greg Klein speaks at a rally for sick ground zero workers in Washington, D.C. in 2008. Klein, who suffers from asthma, gastro intestinal problems and lung scarring, was denied a disability pension five times.

Firefighters make their way over still-smouldering rubble of collapsed World Trade Center towers one month after the terrorist attacks in New York, Oct. 11, 2001.

Felicia Dunn-Jones, a 42-year-old lawyer who worked in a downtown Manhattan office, died from a rare lung disease five months after fleeing from the dust cloud released when the World Trade Center towers collapsed. Dunn-Jones was considered the first official fatality of the toxic dust from the towers when the special master of the federal Sept. 11 Victim Compensation Fund awarded $2.6 million to her family.

People covered in dust and ash make their way amid debris near New York's World Trade Center Sept. 11, 2001.

People run after the collapse of one of the World Trade Center towers Sept. 11, 2001, in New York.