Zadroga 9/11 Health Fund Expanded Past Ground Zero to People in Neighborhood Sickened by WTC Attacks

From NYDailyNews.com:

By Alison Gendar

WASHINGTON - The $2.7 billion Zadroga 9/11 fund to help sickened Ground Zero responders is set to include area residents who breathed in the poisons.

Residents who lived anywhere south of Reade St. between the Hudson and East rivers would be eligible for the health and compensation program under federal regulations proposed Tuesday.

"It is a good thing, a fair thing because it means people who didn't work at The Pit, but got sick, can still be helped," said John Feal, a 9/11 advocate and demolition supervisor who worked at Ground Zero.

While the danger area grew exponentially larger than the 16-acre World Trade Center site, advocates did not have immediate estimates for how many additional sick people could apply for the funds.

Tallies from 2007 suggested up to 91,000 first responders - some 26,000 of them volunteers - worked at Ground Zero in the 10 months after the towers fell.

On top of that, at least another half-million people lived below Canal St. on Sept. 11, 2001, a study by the RTI International health group found.

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