9/11 victims’ lawyer says East Palestine crisis could cause ‘explosion of cancers’ like Ground Zero

A lawyer who represents thousands of 9/11 cancer victims says the residents of East Palestine are right not to return to their homes, and that he wouldn’t be surprised if the toxic train derailment is linked to an ‘explosion’ of illnesses years down the line.

Michael Barasch is the chief advocate for Ground Zero first responders and anyone who breathed in the toxic dust from where the towers stood in the eight months that followed the atrocity.

To date, 69 different types of cancer have been linked to the attacks, including some that are only now being diagnosed.  

In an interview with DailyMail.com on Wednesday, he told of his alarm over the toxic train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, and the hasty assurances from the EPA that it was safe for residents to return home.

‘When I heard the EPA say that the water is safe to drink the air is safe to breath, I literally had shivers go down my neck. 

‘Those are the exact words that the EPA used 21 years ago when they tried to assure downtown New Yorkers that it was safe to come back to work, or go to school, for the first responders to be in the Pit. It wasn’t. 

A New York City firefighter surveying the damage after 9/11. Thousands of people who were in the area that day and for the months that followed were later diagnosed with cancers and respiratory illnesses 

‘I fear that we are going to see an explosion of cancers if the parallels are what I think they are in another 10 , 15, 20 years. 

‘It’s really going to be heartbreaking to see what happens to this community.’ 

Barasch- who himself was diagnosed and beat prostate cancer after the towers fell –  lamented how officials rushed Wall Street back to lower Manhattan to keep the NYSE afloat back in 2001, after the terror attack sent the markets into a freefall. 

In East Palestine, there is no such urgency. 

‘They wanted to reopen Wall Street, they had an ulterior motive, they wanted to make sure everybody was calm. Here, there is no ulterior motive it’s just a knee jerk reaction – “stay in your homes, everything’s going to be OK. Don’t panic.”

‘Well, I beg to differ. I think you should be very scared. 

‘What’s that movie line – be afraid, be very afraid? Err on the side of caution. 

‘Take care of your families and get out of there until we have real, independent, scientific knowledge that this is going to be safe. 

‘I know it’s not easy, a lot of these people can’t afford to go to a hotel. But they’ve got to protect their families.’ 

Norfolk Southern, the rail company whose train derailed, has been so far paying for displaced residents to have alternative accommodation.

But Barasch says they cannot be relied upon to tell people when it’s safe to go home, and that Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency also bears some blame. 

The site of the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, on February 4. The train was carrying toxic materials when it crashed

‘ I see the fumes in the air, I’ve seen the bubbling water, it’s easy for me to say from the safety of lower Manhattan, but it sure reminds me of what lower Manhattan looked like when those two towers fell,’ Barasch said of the town of East Palestine, shown above on February 6

‘I wouldn’t trust [Norfolk Southern] nor their scientists alone to say “now it’s safe.” They are facing huge liability claims. 

‘It’s too soon to know how big this could be. Just protect yourself and don’t just trust the EPA.’ 

Barasch was working in the same downtown office he has now when the towers fell. 

Since then, he said he has lost two colleagues to cancers that are related to the tragedy. 

‘At the time of 9/11 I was two blocks away, we returned to our office because the EPA told us don’t worry it’s safe. Within a dozen years my secretary Liana died of breast cancer aged 47, my paralegal Dennis also aged 47, died of kidney cancer. 

‘I am a prostate cancer survivor. My secretary Barbara has lymphoma, my partner Barry has skin cancer. This is just one small office.

‘It was really deadly toxins that we were exposed to, very similar to what the people of East Palestine are being exposed to now.’ 

He fears the first illnesses to present themselves would be blood or skin cancers, but that it will take several years for them to present themselves. 

East Palestine Mayor Trent Conaway with Lt. Governors and other officials drinking the tap water to try to assure residents that it is safe to return 

Jeff Zalick wipes away a tear outside a newly-opened clinic as he discusses the fears of getting back into his house following the Feb. 3 Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine

Neil Figley, 28, holds his daughter, Harlie, 4, wait in line at the Norfolk Southern Assistance Center to collect a $1000 check and get reimbursed for expenses while they were evacuated following a train derailment prompting health concerns on February 17, 2023 in East Palenstine, Ohio

He wants Congress to set up a healthcare fund now for the victims – that is similar to the World Trade Center Health Program. The program is available to anyone who was in the area of the tower collapse for eight months after 9/11, and not just to the first responders who helped clean up the wreckage. 

There is also concern over how far the damage from the East Palestine train derailment and subsequent burning of chemicals could have traveled. 

The Governor of Pennsylvania – which sits just a mile over the border from East Palestine – has demanded a criminal investigation into Norfolk Southern. 

‘The wind blew west, all across Pennsylvania, and all across into western New York state. Those people have real reasons for concern, as do the people who drink water in the surrounding areas. 

‘From what I understand the Ohio basin, the water travels to the Mississippi. 

‘We need scientists we trust to test this and tell us it’s safe or it’s only safe after boiling or it’s only safe after filtering – whatever it is. 

‘Don’t treat us like children and say “Oh we don’t want to scare the residents” – no, we can take it. What we can’t take are lies,’ Barasch said. 

There has been widespread condemnation of President Biden’s breezy response to the catastrophe. 

The President is yet to comment publicly on the disaster, much less visit the town, but he called the mayor from Poland yesterday after being slammed for his lackluster response. 

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg will today visit. He announced his visit after former President Donald Trump announced plans to travel there himself.  

The President is yet to comment publicly on the disaster, much less visit the town, but he called the mayor from Poland yesterday after being slammed for his lackluster response