The Battle For Ground Zero, Part 159

Deconstruction of the Deutsche Bank building was delayed once again, as toxic dust was discovered on the roof.

The WTC Memorial Foundation is using this week's release of the Oliver Stone Movie World Trade Center to begin a fundraising push. The WTC Museum is also planned to contain an exhibit geared towards younger children.

Health concerns among many Ground Zero workers who spent weeks and months recovering remains and clearing the site of debris is an ongoing concern. Some think that a $150 lung function test can help uncover a potentially fatal lung ailment.

Too many of the 40,000 people who served after 9/11 are sick now, and too many are at risk of more serious illnesses, and too many face even a chance of death to allow for further inaction. Even basic steps could save lives.

Chief among them: seeing to it that everyone who labored amid the pulverized remains of the Twin Towers has their lungs checked - and finding the money to test people who aren't covered by health insurance.

The procedure is simple - little more than breathing in and out of a hand-held tube - and at $150, relatively inexpensive. It measures how well lungs are functioning and, repeated over time, will signal whether they're deteriorating. (For more information, please see the explanatory graphic on opposite page.)

As Dr. Neil Schluger, chief of the division of pulmonary, allergy and critical care medicine at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, put it, "Every person who was down there should have a baseline lung function study, and be followed closely over the coming years for signs of pulmonary symptoms. They should see a doctor and get a lung function test."

To test all 40,000 people would cost $6 million per year.

The Daily News report goes on to say that there have now been four people who have died from respiratory ailments linked to their service at Ground Zero.