The proposed $657 million settlement of the lawsuit by 9/11 rescue and recovery workers acknowledges what the scientific literature already confirms – that health harm occurred from exposure to World Trade Center-derived environmental contaminants, according to the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health.

“These exposures were largely unnecessary and avoidable,” NYCOSH Executive Director Joel Shufro said. “If city, state and government officials had enforced longstanding OSHA and EPA laws during the many months of work at Ground Zero, thousands of workers might have been spared the serious respiratory and other illnesses that have since devastated their lives.”