Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070509/ap_on_re_us/attacks_health

Ground Zero slide show: http://news.yahoo.com/photos/ss/events/ts/091102groundzero;_ylt=AiusE4l5YPax2SDQW4hYBjpH2ocA

Study links lung disease to WTC work

By AMY WESTFELDT, Associated Press WriterTue May 8, 9:40 PM ET

Rescue workers and firefighters contracted a serious lung-scarring disease called sarcoidosis at a much higher rate after the Sept. 11 attacks than before, said a study that is the first to link the disease to exposure to toxic dust at ground zero.

The study, published by nine doctors including the medical officer monitoring city firefighters, Dr. David Prezant, found that firefighters and rescue workers contracted sarcoidosis in the year after Sept. 11, 2001, at a rate more than five times higher than the years before the attacks.

Unlike previous studies that have linked exposure to the toxic dust cloud that enveloped lower Manhattan after the World Trade Center's collapse to many different respiratory illnesses, this study zeros in on one disease.

Somebody should test the composition of the dust mask residue.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070428/ap_on_re_us/sept11_archive

Archivists work to save 9/11 history

By AMY WESTFELDT, Associated Press Writer

Sat Apr 28, 2:30 PM ET

It started with a clogged dust mask that fell onto the desk of Jan Ramirez on the afternoon of Sept. 11, 2001. A friend had used the paper mask to breathe while fleeing downtown Manhattan as the air was filled with grit and smoke from the World Trade Center towers.

"That dust mask is going to be an important artifact some day," Ramirez recalled the friend telling her.

Today, the mask has become a museum piece, one small part of the largest records trove ever assembled to document a single event.

Millions of pieces of paper documenting government investigations, BlackBerry messages written by survivors as they fled, children's finger-paintings and family photographs are also part of the archive, preserved in many different places including state offices, museums and on the Internet.

Saving all things Sept. 11 was a mission embraced from the time of the attacks by professional archivists and grassroots collectors.