'Revived' 9/11 Worker Protection panel remains dormant

As evidence mounted that an increasing number of workers who labored on the World Trade Center site following the September 11 terror attacks had been afflicted by toxic dust and were growing seriously ill, state and federal legislators endeavored to expand the roster of workers eligible for disability protections and benefits. 

In one such effort to address the growing number of people contracting any number of cancers and other often debilitating illnesses attributable to their work on the pile, state lawmakers and then-Governor David Paterson in 2008 carved out an agreement extending eligibility for a “presumptive accidental disability retirement benefit” to 9/11 first responders and others who were not included in earlier benefit bills.