Kudo's to Anthony Weiner...

[R13]

That is exactly what I am saying not that it makes a big differance in what actualy ends up getting passed one way or the other. To me it is EXTREAMLY sad that someone liveing IN NY would develop problems due to the 9/11 cleanup but to me it is NO better or worse than The illness from the Katrina cleanup or fighting wild fires....R13 mentioned that the Feds need to get involved now becouse 9/11 was an attack on our countly.....well Katrina had Gov built Dykes that failed and most of the Wild Fiers out west are on National forst property so again why not cover the people in those situations too?

First I've heard of any widespread illness outside the normal or hell any at all from the cleanup efforts from those specific examples with Katrina or any wildfire. So what exactly are you referring to?

You believe in fighting for these people when the Dems are supporting it but you don't care that a mosque is being built near where all the people served and got ill at ? If it wasn't for that religion we wouldn't have the problem in the first place.

This isn't a dem/rep issue, it's a common sense bill, the GOP just happened to be on the wrong end of it as usual. I support it because those people have absolutely nothing to do with what happened there, they are citizens just like the rest and people seem to forget many muslims died in the attacks too, but they aren't as important huh? Christianity had as much to do with it as Islam did, these were terrorists who happened to be muslims, not the other way around. People need to get that through their head.

[1inStripes]

So you are fine with illegals being covered if they livedi n the area?

[R13]

I wouldn't necessarily agree with it, but if they did receive money, the system obviously failed. Illegals aren't likely to apply for something like this in fear of getting caught, they're scared to take a census, let alone prove citizenship, then prove legitimate illness. If it did happen, it would be a maybe a handful that actually were affected and cheated the system, sorry that's no cause to deny everyone else this money. If it were illegal people that ran in and helped or worked with recovery or something? I'd have absolutely no problem with it, they would be more than deserving, why would I care if they had a SS number.

[1inStripes]

It is a legit reason to correct the bill though.

[Milk3]

Christianity had as much to do with it as Islam did

Please explain this comment.

[Counts]

First I've heard of any widespread illness outside the normal or hell any at all from the cleanup efforts from those specific examples with Katrina or any wildfire. So what exactly are you referring to?

Mysterious Illness Could Have Katrina Ties

Published on Tuesday, January 3, 2006 by the Ruston Daily Leader (Louisiana)

Mysterious Illness Could Have Katrina Ties
by George Graham

Pafford Ambulance Service EMT Greg Coleman watched the polluted water of a flooded New Orleans stain, rust and generally erode the metal slide action of his Glock handgun.

Now the toxic water is threatening his health, as well as other Ruston-area first-responders who answered medical and law enforcement calls for assistance after back-to-back hurricanes earlier this year that may have changed Louisiana?s Crescent City and other Gulf Coast parishes forever.

The paramedic recalls treating victims who trudged waist- and chest-deep through the overflow of Lake Ponchatrain with some of the same symptoms that now have him seeking medical help.

?I can?t clean (the gun) because a film residue keeps coming back,? Coleman said. ?And, if it did that to a metal gun that is nearly indestructible, I can?t imagine what it is doing to people.?

Coleman is not alone. Other area law enforcement and emergency service volunteers also are reporting medical problems and attempting to alert the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals to recognize the health hazard being dubbed the Katrina Rash or New Orleans Crud.

Louisiana State Trooper David Bryant responded three times to the help call and also is receiving medical assistance after contracting a recurring 102-degree fever following his third trip. Doctors have been unable to determine whether his illness, which resembles pneumonia or bronchitis, is fungal or bacterial.

?It definitely came from New Orleans,? the trooper said. ?My chest started hurting in October and lasted for more than a month. I returned to Ruston, but went back to New Orleans for a week over Halloween. When I came home the third time is when I had the high fever.?

Lincoln Parish Deputy Tommy Doss, another early responder, had a different experience ? a rash developed on his forearm shortly after returning from his stint in New Orleans. Topical skin treatment helped his forearm for a few days, but then the rash emerged on his legs. During treatment, it also returned to his arm.

?Now I?ve got the rash on both legs and my arm,? Doss said. ?I don?t know for sure that I caught it in New Orleans, or what it is, but a lot of people are coming down with weird rashes.?

At the beginning of Coleman?s first tour, the water did not appear to be contaminated, he said. That quickly changed.

?We would be wading along and find ourselves walking beside dead and decomposing bodies,? Coleman said. ?In the heat, the water became very stagnant with a combination of sewage, bodies, gas, oil and other chemicals. It was horrible ? and it smelled horrible.

?We were trying to save lives, but we never thought we would encounter this catastrophic experience in our own country ? hunger, extreme thirst, people dying.?

Coleman returned to Ruston on Sept. 6 and during the next two or three days, his appetite disappeared and his body rejected all food.

?The itching skin was the worst part,? Coleman said. ?Our (Pafford) assistant medical directors, Keith Carter and Zach Helsing, immediately recognized the symptoms as a medical problem and sent me to HealthSouth (rehabilitation hospital).?

Nurse Practitioner Shelyna Rice of HealthSouth quickly had Coleman admitted to Lincoln General Hospital under the care of Dr. T.L. Morris. Coleman was given hepatitis and tuberculosis shots, and a series of tests were run. Then internal symptoms showed up.

?The abdominal cramps were extremely painful, the skin rash was still there and the vomiting was horrific,? Coleman said. ?The doctor told me he had never seen anything like what my symptoms were and said he couldn?t diagnose what I had.?

The American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) Web site at American Society of Health System Pharmacists, has posted an article claiming several residents in other states who traveled to New Orleans in the wake of Katrina have come down with skin infections and rashes.

Amy M. Hollar, a pharmacy practice resident at Mission Hospitals in Asheville, N.C., calls the condition the Katrina Rash. The ASHP field hospital treated several local (New Orleans) residents and relief workers for various skin infections and rashes. Several patients were diagnosed with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).

Robert Leeds, a critical care pharmacist at Durham (N.C.) Regional Hospital, part of the Duke University Health System, said another skin infection is being identified as being caused by the marine bacterium Vibrio fischeri.

A third skin infection is suspected by epidemiologists at the field hospital to be a contact dermatitis, Hollar said.
Heather Tornabene is a licensed practical nurse and a first-responder EMT. She volunteered to go to New Orleans twice and says MRSA is very dangerous.

?MRSA is antibiotic resistant,? Tornabene said. ?Most antibiotics won?t touch it, so it is extremely hard to treat.?

Doss recalls post-hurricane New Orleans as a huge smelly mess filled with floating corpses when the Ruston contingent arrived. The air was also filled with smoke from fires burning out of control since firefighters had no water pressure. At one point, a factory or warehouse explosion sent huge clouds of smoke into the air and everybody inhaling the vapors suffered an immediate, serious headache

Doss and others were in a pickup truck at the scene of one fire where rescue workers were using Blackhawk helicopters with ?balloons? to dip water out of Lake Ponchartrain. The helicopter would then drop the load of water hoping to extinguish the fire, Doss said.

?Deputy Jim Stephens was riding in the bed of the truck when a load of water was dropped,? Doss said. ?We were so close that he was completely soaked with filthy water, and he didn?t get a rash.?

Ruston firefighter Kevin Lewis said he was in contact with the contaminated New Orleans water, but did not come down with a rash.

Ruston Paramedic Tom Leith said firefighters used extra precautions.

?No one in our department has said anything to me about any rashes,? Leith said. ?We were in the second group and were really careful.?

Doss said he got off lightly compared to Bryant.

?Bryant has something internal,? Doss said. ?He?s having chest pains and is in really bad shape.?

Bryant?s fianc饬 Carol Dreyfus, said Bryant also suffers with abdominal problems, extreme weakness and fatigue.

?David (Bryant) is home now, but he?s going to a specialist in New Orleans after the first of the year,? Dreyfus said. ?They really don?t know what he has ? they just call it the New Orleans Crud. But he?s lost 32 pounds and looks horrible.?

Bryant blames part of his woes on lack of preparedness by state police headquarters.

?They dumped us off in New Orleans without the right equipment and they didn?t give us shots or respirators,? Bryant said. ?The whole thing in New Orleans was really unorganized ? horribly, horribly, horribly unorganized by both the governor and state police headquarters.?

Bryant, who prior to his illness ran an average of 140 miles a week, will enter Oshner Hospital in New Orleans where he will be tested by the hospital?s internal medicine diagnostic facility.

?I?m tired of my chest hurting,? the eight-year veteran trooper said. ?I?m tired of the cramps.?

Ruston Fire Chief James Tornabene said the firefighters who returned from New Orleans only recently completed their shot regimen because no one knew what they were going into.

?We had no time to prepare, as if anyone could prepare for a disaster of the magnitude of Katrina,? James Tornabene said. ?The second team we sent got Hepatitis A shots, and our EMTs had to have Hepatitis B shots.?

Heather Tornabene said for the Hepatitis A shot to be effective, it would have to be administered 30 to 60 days in advance. Because of that, she was extremely careful to not go into water more than ankle-deep and constantly wore rubber gloves.

James Tornabene said he was concerned about air-borne particles, but respirators were not the answer to disease prevention in aid workers.

?Respirators were impractical in the 100-degree heat and high humidity of New Orleans,? the chief said. ?One of the keys to avoiding diseases is to avoid prolonged contact with contaminants ? the longer the exposure, the greater the chance of disease.?

Coleman, 33, of Ruston, was the 2003 winner of the EMT of the Year Award presented by the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians. His symptoms of vomiting, abdominal cramping, constant thirst and no appetite returned a week after he was released from the hospital.

Coleman said he personally treated people in New Orleans with the same symptoms, and the problem now is getting the State Department of Health and Hospitals to recognize Katrina Rash as a legitimate health problem. He issued a dire warning to anyone planning to live in New Orleans.

?My personal observation is that I see a serious safety hazard,? Coleman said. ?None of these medical problems have been identified, and I recommend that people not go back to live and if they return to visit to wear the heaviest rubber boots and gloves they can find. I recommend they carry in their own water and not drink any New Orleans water or any drink with New Orleans ice in it.

?I don?t see how that city can recover. My grandchildren will live to see repercussions from the area down there.?</SPAN>

Vibrio Illnesses After Hurricane Katrina ? Multiple States, August?September 2005



Are FEMA trailers ?toxic tin cans?? - U.S. news - Katrina, The Long Road Back - msnbc.com

[R13]

It is a legit reason to correct the bill though.

I don't think it is, not to derail the entire bill. This is assuming it was done for that anyway, it was "find the smallest things so we can shoot it down" type move.

[1inStripes]

Can I borrow $5k from you just for the fun of it?

[R13]

Please explain this comment.

Are you kidding? Do you think that they are just fighting amongst themselves? Who do you think they are pissed off at?

Mysterious Illness Could Have Katrina Ties






Vibrio Illnesses After Hurricane Katrina — Multiple States, August–September 2005



Are FEMA trailers ?toxic tin cans?? - U.S. news - Katrina, The Long Road Back - msnbc.com

Really hadn't heard anything about this, but was anything ever made of it? Looks like pretty old links and nothing ever came about from it?

Can I borrow $5k from you just for the fun of it?

Of course not. But fraud with illegals would be enough to derail this bill? Fraud maybe in general to make changes to it, but because it's illegals who IMO would be some of the least likely to 1) attempt it and 2) actually get anything.

[Counts]

Really hadn't heard anything about this, but was anything ever made of it? Looks like pretty old links and nothing ever came about from it?

Honistly it is/was alot like the 911 stuff for the 1st few years and how they are talking about the gulf oil well now there were more links but honistly I did not have time to read them there is a ton of stuff on it I personaly can't make a judgement on what is legit and what are people tring to work the system