Though they have not registered for necessary benefits, thousands of civilian personnel, including construction workers involved in the extensive cleaning of Ground Zero 21 years ago, are qualified for World Trade Center victims’ health care. Together with 9/11 legal advocate Michael Barasch and representatives of the construction sector, state assemblymen Nader Sayegh, J. Gary Pretlow, and Brian P. Kavanagh demanded today that legislation mandating businesses to inform their staff of their eligibility be put through public hearings.

Only 10% of other employees and people who would be eligible for the coverage are thought to have enlisted in the World Trade Center Health Program, despite the fact that most uniformed emergency responders have.

The “9/11 Notice Act” (A-9715) is new legislation introduced this session by Assemblyman Sayegh. It would mandate that companies with 50 or more employees that operated between September 2001 and May 2002, and that were located in the Lower Manhattan exposure zone, notify their ex-employees of their right to register under the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Reauthorization Act.

The World Trade Center terrorist assault on September 11, 2001 is commemorated this year on its 21st anniversary. Lower Manhattan and sections of Brooklyn were covered in an estimated 1.2 million tons of poisonous ash, soot, and debris that included carcinogens that cause cancer when the Twin Towers collapsed.