DUST LADY’S DEATH

DUST LADY’S DEATH

Is the Dust Lady's death from cancer proof 9/11 could kill thousands more? Thousands caught up in terror attacks have been diagnosed with the disease

                 Borders became known as the Dust Lady of 9/11 following attacks 

She became caked in ash while fleeing the collapsed World Trade Centre 

The 42-year-old has now died after a year long battle with stomach cancer

She and blamed the condition on the dust she inhaled at Ground The 28-year-old Bank of America employee might have passed for a ghost if it wasn’t for the gleam of her necklace and earrings that escaped the toxic coating of dust caused by the tumbling Twin Towers. She became known as the ‘Dust Lady’ and her subsequent tragic fate, sinking into a spiral of depression that led to alcoholism and drug addiction, became a cautionary tale about the impact that the traumatic events of September 11, 2001, had on those who survived.

On Monday, she died aged 42 after a year-long battle with stomach cancer, which she and her family blamed on the dust she inhaled during the attack.

Her premature death has opened a festering sore for countless 9/11 rescuers, local residents and office workers who claim they were poisoned by the air they breathed at Ground Zero.Thousands of people who were in the area have been diagnosed with cancer but, controversially, medical officials have not confirmed any definite link to the attacks.Whatever the city authorities and such medical experts said, Miss Borders and her family never had any doubt that she was as much a victim of Osama Bin Laden’s al-Qaeda terrorists as those who were killed on 9/11 itself.‘My mum fought an amazing battle,’ said her daughter Noelle yesterday. ‘Not only is she the “Dust Lady”, but she is my hero and she will forever live through me.’Marcy’s cousin, John Borders, said she had ‘unfortunately succumbed to the diseases that have ridden her body since 9/11. In addition to losing so many friends, co-workers and colleagues on and after that tragic day . . . the pains from yesteryear have found a way to resurface’.

Miss Borders always insisted her cancer — first diagnosed in August 2014, and for which she had chemotherapy — was a direct consequence of 9/11.‘I definitely believe it because I haven’t had any illnesses,’ she said last November. ‘How do you go from being healthy to waking up the next day with cancer?’ She was just four weeks into a new job with the Bank of America on the 81st floor of the North Tower when it was hit by a hijacked passenger plane at 8.46am. ‘Suddenly, boom! The building swayed and I dropped to my knees, thinking the top part [of the tower] was going to break off and I would see the sky,’ she later recalled.Ignoring her supervisor’s instruction that staff stay calm and remain at their desks, she panicked and joined hundreds jamming the stairwells. ‘When I got into the lobby, I saw . . . people with metal in them, glass, their skin peeled off,’ she said.Having escaped the building and managed to stagger into the street, she heard a massive explosion as the South Tower collapsed.

‘I just saw this dust cloud coming towards us, and I thought once it caught me, I’d be dead. It was like a whirlwind and I couldn’t even see my hand in front of my face.’

A man grabbed her arm and led her to safety in a nearby building. It was there that the famous picture of her was taken by news photographer Stan Honda, who said: ‘A woman came in completely covered in grey dust. You could tell she was nicely dressed for work and for a second she stood in the lobby.’

He took just one shot of her before a police officer moved everyone to a safer spot.

Following the picture’s publication, Miss Borders began to worry she might become a target for the terrorists who carried out the atrocity.Suffering from what some say was undiagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder, she became a paranoid recluse, refusing to leave her flat alone.‘It haunted me every day. My life spiralled out of control,’ she said. ‘Every time I saw an aircraft, I panicked. If I saw a man on a building, I was convinced he was going to shoot me.’Battling depression, she started drinking heavily. When alcohol wasn’t enough, she turned to drugs — first cocaine and then becoming addicted to its lethal variant, crack cocaine.‘My life became a garbage can . . . I was trying to kill myself with drugs, which was so selfish,’ she admitted.As her weight fell to just five-and-a-half stone, she was deemed unfit to look after her two young children, and they were sent to live with close relatives. In April 2011, she went into rehab. Eventually, she became sober, regained custody of her children and moved back into the home she shared with her boyfriend.

‘The anniversary [of 9/11] gives me no fear,’ she said at the time. ‘I’ve got peace now. I’m not afraid of anything.’ That ‘peace’, however, was tragically short-lived.But Marcy Borders was one of many who, although they survived the 9/11 attacks, believe their lives were destroyed as a result of them.Fourteen years on, there is growing concern that the 2,606 people who died in the Twin Towers and the surrounding area were not the only victims al-Qaeda claimed that day.It is certainly possible that Miss Borders’s cancer was caused by her alcohol and drug abuse and had no direct link with 9/11.But it is also possible that it was triggered by the carcinogenic asbestos that was released into the air from the shattered structure of the World Trade Center.Experts say that tiny, razor-sharp particles can easily puncture the stomach lining if ingested — possibly leading eventually to a cancer developing.

Academics and air pollution experts have described the dust from the collapsed towers as ‘wildly toxic’, made up of more than 2,500 contaminants including glass, lead and mercury.At 40, Borders was extremely young to be diagnosed with stomach cancer. According to Cancer Research UK, 95 per cent who are diagnosed with it are aged 55 or older.Last year, three New York firefighters who worked at Ground Zero on 9/11 died of cancer on the same day, prompting claims they were killed by the polluted air they inhaled in the aftermath of the attack.In 2011, Barack Obama set up a £1.77 billion fund to compensate survivors and rescuers for health problems related to the attacks. Stomach cancer was one of several conditions covered by the fund. The legislation passed to set up the fund was named after James Zadroga, a New York policeman who in 2006 died of lung disease that was attributed to his involvement in spending 450 hours working in the rubble.Initially, the city’s health officials argued that 34-year-old Mr Zadroga’s death had nothing to do with 9/11 — perhaps because they feared many multi-million-dollar lawsuits. They have since softened their stance.

The city’s health department now cites research by the New York fire department, which found that nearly 9,000 firefighters who worked at Ground Zero may be at greater risk of cancer than colleagues who were not exposed.A study has also found ‘higher than expected’ prostate and thyroid cancer rates among nearly 21,000 rescue and recovery workers who were involved with the 9/11 operation.However, much to the frustration of survivors, experts say the medical evidence is still not conclusive. Three years ago, for instance, the most comprehensive study to date of potential 9/11-related cancers was unclear about the link.The survey, which involved nearly 56,000 people and compared them to the general population, suggested possible links with prostate, thyroid and a type of blood cancer among World Trade Center rescue and recovery workers.

The conclusion was that it was still too early to judge the effects of the attack, as some cancers take longer to develop.

Meanwhile, New York City’s WTC Health Registry has conducted studies that suggest post-traumatic stress disorder is the most common health effect of 9/11.

It estimates that around a fifth of adults who were directly involved in the terror attack and its traumatic aftermath have suffered symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder — about four times the rate of symptoms in the general population.

As for Marcy Borders, there is a possible medical link with 9/11. For while cancer experts say there is no clear proof that links dust with stomach cancer, they concede there is some evidence it can be caused by asbestos.Whether she was killed by the toxic drugs and alcohol she resorted to in a bid to cope with depression, or by carcinogenic asbestos particles, the legacy of 9/11 proved equally fatal.Her tragic fate is a chilling reminder that the evil men of al-Qaeda know that, 14 years on from 9/11, their horrific atrocity is still claiming new victims. ലോകം മരവിച്ച 2001 സപ്തംബര്‍ 11-ലെ ഭീകരാക്രമണത്തിന്റെ പ്രതിരൂപം മേഴ്‌സി ബോര്‍!ഡേഴ്‌സ് (42) ഓര്‍മയായി. ഉദരാര്‍ബുദമായിരുന്നു മരണകാരണം.ഭീകരാക്രമണത്തില്‍ നിന്ന് രക്ഷപ്പെട്ട് പൊടിയില്‍ കുളിച്ചുനില്‍ക്കുന്ന മേഴ്‌സിയുടെ അന്നത്തെ ഫോട്ടോ 'ഡസ്റ്റ് ലേഡി' എന്ന പേരില്‍ വന്‍ പ്രചാരം നേടിയിരുന്നു. 

ആക്രമണം നടക്കുമ്പോള്‍ വേള്‍ഡ് ട്രേഡ് സെന്‍ററിലെ 81-ാം നിലയിലെ ബാങ്ക് ഓഫ് അമേരിക്കയിലെ ജീവനക്കാരിയായിരുന്നു മേഴ്‌സി. തിരിച്ചറിയാനാവാത്ത വിധം ദേഹമാകെ പൊടിമൂടി ഭയന്നുവിറച്ച് ഓടുന്ന മേഴ്‌സിയുടെ ചിത്രം എ.എഫ്.പി.ഫോട്ടോഗ്രാഫര്‍ സ്റ്റാന്‍ ഹോണ്ടയാണ് പകര്‍ത്തിയത്. വന്‍ പ്രാധാന്യത്തോടെ മാധ്യമങ്ങള്‍ പ്രസിദ്ധീകരിച്ച ചിത്രം ഭീകരാക്രമണത്തിന്റെ നേര്‍സാക്ഷ്യമായി. ടൈം മാഗസിന്‍റെ ശക്തമായ 25 ചിത്രങ്ങളുടെ പട്ടികയിലും ഇടംപിടിച്ചു. രണ്ടുമക്കളുടെ അമ്മയായ ന്യൂജേഴ്‌സി സ്വദേശി മേഴ്‌സി തിങ്കളാഴ്ച മരിച്ചവിവരം സഹോദരന്‍ മൈക്കല്‍ ബോര്‍ഡേഴ്‌സ് ആണ് ഫെയ്‌സ്ബുക്കിലൂടെ പുറത്തുവിട്ടത്.
ഭീകരാക്രമണസമയത്ത് കെട്ടിടത്തിനകത്തുണ്ടായിരുന്നപ്പോള്‍ ശ്വസിച്ച പൊടിയും ചാരവുമാണ് തനിക്ക് അര്‍ബുദം നല്കിയതെന്നാണ് വിശ്വസിച്ചിരുന്നത്. ആക്രമണത്തിന്റെ ഞെട്ടലില്‍ നിന്ന് വിമുക്തിനേടാന്‍ 10 വര്‍ഷത്തോളം എടുത്തതായും ഉത്കണ്ഠയും ഭയവും ജീവിതം തകര്‍ത്തതായും അവര്‍ പറഞ്ഞിരുന്നു.''വന്‍ ശബ്ദത്തോടെ പൊട്ടിത്തെറികേട്ടു. കെട്ടിടം ആടിയുലയാന്‍ തുടങ്ങി. എല്ലാ നിയന്ത്രണവും വിട്ട താന്‍ രക്ഷാ പ്രവര്‍ത്തകരുടെ മുന്നറിയിപ്പ് അവഗണിച്ച് ഒരുവിധത്തില്‍ രക്ഷപ്പെടുകയായിരുന്നു''- 2011-ല്‍ ഡെയ്ലി മെയ്ലിന് നല്‍കിയ അഭിമുഖത്തില്‍ അന്നത്തെ സംഭവത്തെക്കുറിച്ച് മേഴ്‌സി പറഞ്ഞു.തൊട്ടടുത്ത കെട്ടിടത്തിന്റെ ലോബിയിലെത്തിയ മേഴ്സിയെ അവിടെ വെച്ചാണ് ഫോട്ടോഗ്രാഫര്‍ ക്യാമറയില്‍ പകര്‍ത്തിയത്. ആ സംഭവത്തിന് ശേഷം 10 വര്‍ഷത്തോളം ജോലിചെയ്യാനാവാത്ത അവസ്ഥയിലായിരുന്നു മേഴ്‌സി. വിമാനം കണ്ടാല്‍ത്തന്നെ മനസ്സ് പതറുന്ന അവസ്ഥ. കടുത്ത സമ്മര്‍ദം മയക്കുമരുന്നിലെത്തിച്ചു. ഭര്‍ത്താവും രണ്ടു മക്കളും അവരില്‍ നിന്നകന്നു. തുടര്‍ന്ന് ഏറെക്കാലത്തെ ചികിത്സ. 
ലഹരി പുനരധിവാസകേന്ദ്രത്തിലെ ചികിത്സയോടെ അവര്‍ പഴയനിലയിലേക്ക് മടങ്ങി. മക്കളും മേഴ്‌സിക്കൊപ്പം താമസം തുടങ്ങിയിരുന്നു. അപ്പോഴാണ് വയറിനകത്തെ അര്‍ബുദം തിരിച്ചറിയുന്നത്.അന്ന് ഗ്രൗണ്ട് സീറോയിലുണ്ടായിരുന്ന നിരവധിപേര്‍ക്ക് പിന്നീട് അര്‍ബുദം കണ്ടെത്തിയിരുന്നു. എന്നാല്‍, അതിന് ഭീകരാക്രമണവുമായി ബന്ധം കണ്ടെത്താന്‍ ഇതുവരെ ആയിട്ടില്ല.ഭീകരാക്രമണത്തെത്തുടര്‍ന്ന് ആരോഗ്യപ്രശ്‌നമുണ്ടായവര്‍ക്ക് നഷ്ടപരിഹാരം നല്‍കാന്‍ പ്രസിഡന്‍റ് ഒബാമ 2011-ല്‍ 278 കോടി ഡോളറിന്റെ ഫണ്ട് സ്വരൂപിച്ചിരുന്നു. മേഴ്‌സിയുടെ ജീവിതം ആസ്പദമാക്കി 'ദ ബല്ലാഡ് ഓഫ് മേഴ്‌സി ബോര്‍ഡേഴ്‌സ്'എന്ന പേരില്‍ ഇറങ്ങിയ പാട്ട് ഇന്‍റര്‍നെറ്റില്‍ ഏറെപ്പേര്‍ കണ്ടിരുന്നു.

Prof. John Kurakar