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Official Cause of Death: 9/11 Dust
By
Jen Chung
Published May 24, 2007
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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By
Jen Chung
Published May 24, 2007
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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The city's medical examiner's office classified that a woman's death was due to dust from the World Trade Center wreckage dust. Staten Island resident Felicia Dunn-Jones, a lawyer for the U.S. Department of Education with a husband and two children, was covered in dust on September 11, 2001 from the first collapse. She later developed sarcoidosis and died on February 10, 2002. Chief Medical Examiner Charles Hirsch wrote in a letter, "It is likely, with certainty beyond a reasonable doubt, that exposure to WTC dust was harmful to [Ms. Dunn-Jones] ... and that exposure to World Trade Center Dust on 9/11/01 was contributory to her death. The manner of death will be changed from natural to homicide."
Dunn-Jones' family received $2.6 million from the September 11th Victim Compensation, which ruled her death was "in fact linked to the dust." But the family was looking for the city to reclassify the cause of death after Dunn-Jones' husband's attempt to have her added to the victims' list was rejected in 2004. The NY Times reports that husband Joseph Jones' lawyer continued to collect evidence and sent it to the Hirsch, who then came around. Representative Carolyn Maloney said, "The city medical examiner has now accepted what thousands of people with 9/11-related illnesses and their doctors have long understood: that ground zero dust was harmful and even deadly."
Dunn-Jones will be added to the World Trade Center Memorial, and her death puts the number of victims at 2,750.
Tagged
9/11
Charles hirsch
chief medical examiner
children
death
education
ground zero
HOMICIDE
Medical Examiner
News: NYC
ny times
people
Representative Carolyn Maloney
september 11
staten island
the city
Trade Center
world trade center
World Trade Center Memorial
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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