Disabled NYC 9/11 Ironworker Out To Protect Future First Responders

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.laborradio.org/node/6815

Disabled NYC 9/11 Ironworker Out To Protect Future First Responders - 09/14/07

By Doug Cunningham

New York City Ironworker John Sferazo was disabled with pulmonary problems after working at Ground Zero on September 11th. He says union labor – from police and fire to construction trades and Con Ed - did the recovery work there but political leaders from Bush to Rudy Giuliani failed 9/11 workers.

: “Elected officials - bein' Rudy Giuliani, George Pataki and Christie Todd Whitman - they were tellin' us the air was safe to breathe and the water was safe to drink. Bush standin' on that pile sayin' we will never forget. But yet, at the same I watched nothing bein' done."

Sferazo co-founded Unsung Heroes Helping Heroes to push for a federal and state intertwined emergency response plan and a “presumption bill” guaranteeing future first responders who develop health problems will get the benefits they need and deserve. Sferazo says he and fellow union workers were engulfed in a horrific scene and had no effective protection against 9/11 toxins.

: "There were brains - human brains mixed in, intestines. There were body parts everywhere. I carried what was left of a man's head. Ironworkers are usually as tough as nails. I'm not the same individual I was beforehand."

Sferazo is permanently disabled and takes 20 medications a day for health effects suffered from his 9/11 work.