A Cloud of Smoke

By Jennifer Kahn
Issue: Sept 15

James Zadroga died at age of 34 due to lung problems.
That much is uncontested, but that's about all that is.

See, Zadroga was a firefighter on the scene at Ground Zero, and became the poster boy for 9/11 related health problems. There was even an official act named after him in 2006 that provided benefits to the families of the people who died from 9/11 related illnesses.

But what caused the lung problems and the hundreds of granulomas "knots of scar tissue that build up around inorganic particles, like the pearling around sand grains in an oyster;" 9/11 or possibly drug abuse?

At this point, the people lobbying for benefits for those affected by 9/11 are probably wishing they had a poster boy with a cleaner health history, but whether or not 9/11 was what killed James Zadroga, at least his story helped get families some well-deserved money.