Polish workers owed millions in compensation after 9/11?
PR dla Zagranicy
Victoria Bieniek
31.10.2018 13:31
US lawyers are searching for Poles who may be entitled to millions in compensation after they helped to clear ground zero after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York, Poland’s onet.pl portal reported on Wednesday.
Robert J. Fisch/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)Robert J. Fisch/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)
The portal reported that workers who were clearing the rubble were not informed about the health risks associated with the poor air quality caused when the World Trade Center fell.
Working in the toxic environment caused cancer as well as gastrointestinal and respiratory diseases, onet.pl reported.
Workers who contracted cancer may be entitled to up to USD 250,000 (PLN 955,000) while people with other diseases could receive up to USD 90,000 in compensation, the portal said, adding that further compensation could be paid out if there were unable to work as a result of their illness.
Thousands of Poles have already been compensated but many others may still be unaware that they are entitled to compensation, onet.pl said, citing lawyers.
Meanwhile, the fund paying out compensation closes on 18 December 2020, onet.pl added.
Onet.pl reported that for years US authorities told people working on clearing ground zero that the cloud of dust which hovered around the site of the former Twin Towers was harmless.
The website said former administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency Christine Todd Whitman is accountable for misleading workers.
September 11, 2001 saw the deadliest terror attack on American soil.
Almost 3,000 people, including six Poles, died after hijacked planes slammed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
(vb/di)