PEP, June 2007: Toxic 9/11 dust killed Glen Pennington

Health care experts believe that it is too soon to say whether the 2006 passing of the 49-year-old Radio Repair Mechanic is an early sign of a coming wave of cancer-related deaths among World Trade Center rescue, recovery and cleanup workers.

By GREGORY N. HEIRES

Many health experts fear that the long-term effects of the 9/11 terrorist attacks could include a high incidence of cancer among the tens of thousands of workers who toiled at Ground Zero.

Today, co-workers and the sister of Radio Repair Mechanic Glenford Pennington believe he is one of the initial cancer victims. Pennington died last August after a bout with lymphoma. He was only 49.

“It killed him,” said his sister, Valorie Pennington, about her brother’s work at Ground Zero and subsequent cleaning of equipment from the site. “Glen was never sick before this. But it’s not just Glen. Look at all these people who are dying every day.”

While not discounting the possibility of an eventual wave of cancer victims, health care experts warn that it is premature to draw a certain link between the cancer illnesses of rescue, recovery and cleanup workers and their exposure to the contaminated air of the 9/11 site.

Astonishingly, nearly six years after the destruction of the World Trade Center, an official count of later deaths caused by 9/11 does not exist, although a year ago, the state Health Dept. was mandated to establish a mortality registry.

When the federal government approved funding for the tri-state and nationwide medical treatment programs for rescue, recovery and cleanup workers, it did not include cancer as one of the covered illnesses.

Among DC 37 members, three EMS workers have died since the disaster because of 9/11-related respiratory illnesses. A lawsuit representing 10,000 rescue and recovery workers has documented fatalitiesattributable not only to respiratory illnesses but also to other health ailments, including cancer.

Five hundred of the rescue and recovery workers covered by the lawsuit against the city have cancer,according to the lead attorney, David Worby. More than 110 have died because of cancer, heart or respiratory illnesses. The lawsuit charges that the city failed to protect the safety and health of the workers.

Worby faulted politicians, including former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, for not ensuring workers had the proper safeguards against pollutants.

Glenford Pennington’s death “is on Giuliani’s head,” Worby said. “He went to OSHA and said ‘I’m in charge,’ ” mentioning how Giuliani fought to keep the cleanup under the city’s control and kept out the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Critics charge that in his zeal for the city — and especially Wall Street — to bounce back from the attacks, Giuliani failed to ensure that workers were protected from hazardous materials at Ground Zero. The Giuliani administration didn’t seriously enforce a federal requirement that they wear respirators.

In the class-action lawsuit, more than 120 workers with cancer have blood-cell cancers, such as lymphoma, leukemia and multiple myeloma.

Francine Laden, assistant professor of environmental epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health, stressed that it is often very difficult to establish a cause of cancer. But the apparently high number of cancer cases among 9/11 rescue and recovery certainly merited study, she said.

Laden said that more than five years after the terrorist attacks, she would be skeptical about linking workers’ exposure to pollutants with lung cancer, which takes many years to develop. But blood-cell cancers like lymphoma can develop over relatively short periods, and she said it is not unreasonable to assume that exposure to toxins at Ground Zero has stricken workers with those forms of the disease.

“Lymphoma is relatively rare,” Laden said. “If there is a cluster, then it is possible that it could be linked to chemicals and gas.”

“We can’t establish a link right now,” said Laura Crowley, medical director of the World Trade Center Medical Monitoring National Program at Mt. Sinai, “but it’s certainly a good question.”

Pennington was dispatched to Ground Zero on 9/11 to clean and repair Fire Dept. communication gear. In the three months following the attacks, Pennington returned periodically to Ground Zero to do repair work.

“I remember when Glen came back after a few hours down at Ground Zero, he was completely white and gray,” said Radio Repair Mechanic Mike Rowinski, a Local 1087 member. “He looked like a ghost. He was completely covered by the debris.”

Like many rescue and recovery workers, Pennington literally consumed a chemical cocktail cooked up by the collapse of the Twin Towers. The dust debris included asbestos, cement particles, ground-up glass from computers and windows, titanium, barium, gypsum and lead.

“They found glass in his lungs,” Valorie Pennington said. “They found asbestos in his lungs. The pulmonologist said he hadn’t seen anything like it before.”

Tests showed that he had parenchymal pulmonary calcification, which a medical report indicated “may be related to his heavy exposure to pollutants while he was at Ground Zero.” The cause of his lymphoma isn’t certain, but the cancer has been associated with chemicals.

“Glen was in excellent health before 9/11,” said Robert Moradfar, an RRM who, like Pennington, was sent to Ground Zero on the day of the attacks. “Many of us believe he was killed by being poisoned that day.”

Around Sept. 1, 2005, Pennington’s deteriorating health became apparent one day when he stayed overnight at work because he was too weak to drive home to the Poconos Mountains in Pennsylvania. Later, when no one heard from him for two weeks, Moradfar, who has land near Pennington’s home, decided to visit.

“When I got to the house, I found him naked on the floor,” Moradfar said. “He had lost so much weight that he looked like a Holocaust victim.”
Pennington was treated immediately for kidney failure and diagnosed with lymphoma at Morristown Memorial Hospital in New Jersey. Because of a tumor, his right leg had ballooned to two or three times the normal size, and his right foot had to be amputated. His left leg was amputated below the knee because of an infection following the amputation of his left foot. Before his death, he spent months in the hospital and at a rehabilitation center.

Co-workers spoke warmly about Pennington. Shop Steward Tom Mecir described the reserved, 6-foot-2 man as “a nice giant bear, a gentle guy.”

Pennington, who would regularly carry a digital camera and video camera, loved high-tech devices. It was a passion that dated from his childhood, when his mother once found him on the roof of their home communicating with Japan through a ham radio.

Pennington also was a weather enthusiast. On his vacations, he would travel to Georgia, Oklahoma and Florida to chase down storms and tornadoes. He posted his photos on Web sites he maintained.

His co-workers were shocked by Pennington’s deteriorating health. Local 1087 Treasurer and Shop Steward Manny Roman helped Pennington file a disability claim that attributed his medical condition to his work at Ground Zero. But Pennington died before the Fire Dept. could make a decision on the claim. As a civilian employee, Pennington wasn’t eligible for the department’s medical program, which federal regulations restrict to Firefighters and Emergency Medical Service workers.

“What makes a Radio Repair Mechanic any different from a Firefighter? I don’t understand. It’s ridiculous,” Valorie Pennington said. “I feel in my heart of hearts if Glen had been in the medical monitoring, they could have discovered the cancer sooner,” Mecir said.