Second Center Opens on L.I.
Last March, attorney Michael Barasch joined with New York philanthropists and leaders from Wall Street and the entertainment industry to raise more than $1.2 million to expand the availability of the New York Rescue Workers Detoxification Project.
One of the primary targets for the fundraising effort, hosted by project co-founder Tom Cruise, was to open a detoxification facility on Long Island, where many firefighters and police officer make their homes.
In June, Barasch joined Cruise, firefighters and community leaders to celebrate the opening of the new center. State Senator Michael Balboni, who represents Long Island, issued a proclamation in honor of the opening, calling the results being achieved through detoxification, "the ultimate victory over the effects terrorists hoped to achieve."
To date, the Project has helped more than 350 rescue workers recover their quality of life through a regimen that includes exercise, low-heat sauna and vitamin and mineral supplements. The program has been used to treat occupational and environmental chemical exposures for more than two decades.
One of the first to complete detoxification in Long Island was firefighter Vladimir Kowal, a 22-year veteran of FDNY. "After completing the program I have now regained a renewed zest for living with increased energy, improved mental clarity and an all around sense of well being," he said. "I am no longer irritable, I am calm and outgoing and friendlier and I keep seeing this healthy-looking guy in the mirror!"
continued above
>
|
|
The New York Rescue Workers Detoxification Project also includes an ongoing program of research and evaluation, to document treatment outcomes and to increase understanding of how detoxification benefits participants.
A recent study, presented in Berlin at the 24th International Symposium on Halogenated Environmental Organic Pollutants and POPs (Persistent Organic Pollutants), measured blood levels of PCBs before and after treatment in a group of seven men present at the collapse of the WTC towers. Five were firefighters, one was a volunteer rescue worker and the other worked on Wall Street.
Before treatment, all seven had elevated levels of mono-ortho PCBs, similar in effects to the highly hazardous chemical dioxin. In fact, pre-treatment blood levels were consistent with those seen in workers occupationally exposed to PCBs. Post-treatment, toxicity levels decreased an average 65 percent.
"These findings are of great interest, and call for further study," noted David E. Root, MD, MPH, senior medical advisor to the project. Root noted that earlier published studies involving electrical workers had also found PCB reductions following detoxification.
"The rescue workers coming for detoxification treatment routinely report with symptoms long associated with chemical exposures," Root added. "These can include neurological problems such as fatigue, sleep difficulties, inability to concentrate, short-term memory loss, and headaches and other physical complaints such as sinus congestion and infection, cough, tightness in the throat, acid reflux, weight gain, abdominal pain, rashes, asthma, breathing difficulties, severe muscle aches, metallic taste in the mouth and joint pain."
A recent evaluation of 286 cases treated at the project's Manhattan facility, Downtown Medical, P.C., found that on average neurological, muscle and lung symptoms resolved fully in three out of four cases treated and greatly improved in virtually every case.
For more information on detoxification treatment or the New York Rescue Workers Detoxification Project, call 212-587-3961, or visit www.nydetox.org.
return to top
|
