The Battle For Ground Zero, Part 173

Mayor Bloomberg is set to take over as chair of the WTC Memorial Foundation, which should help improve its fundraising capabilities.

Meanwhile, has dust from the collapsed WTC towers caused cancer and will it cause an increase in certain types of cancer? That appears to be the conclusion of some of the top doctors in the city, though it's largely based on conjecture and not epidemological studies:

Top New York doctors are concerned that the dust cloud that fell on the city after the World Trade Center attack could have contained cancer-causing agents and say individuals who breathed it should be tracked more closely for medical problems, including cancer.

A Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center oncologist, Dr. Larry Norton, said there is "every reason to expect" that the debris could have been carcinogenic.

While he stopped short of predicting higher cancer rates among those who breathed in the air, saying there was no evidence to rely on at this point, the doctor said there is enough concern about ailments, including cancers of the esophagus, head, and neck, to ramp up studies, screenings, and treatments.

It certainly deserves more study.

UPDATE:
The Daily News reports that changes are afoot for the design of the memorial museum.

The World Trade Center Museum would offer a more panoramic view of the north tower's vast footprint under design changes now being discussed.
The changes would eliminate massive shear walls that would have subdivided the footprint at bedrock level and obstructed views of the 120-by-120-foot spot.

In addition, moving mechanical equipment and a planned repository of unidentified human remains from 9/11 will free up additional space within the footprint.

The changes, subject to further review, were outlined recently by architect Max Bond and museum planners to representatives of historic-preservation groups and 9/11 family organizations.

The changes adhere to recommendations made in June by builder Frank Sciame, who was tapped by Gov. Pataki and Mayor Bloomberg to bring memorial and museum plans in line with a $500 million budget.

Technorati: World Trade Center, WTC, Pataki, LMDC, urban policy, Freedom Tower, IFC, International Freedom Center, spitzer, silverstein, mount sinai, respiratory ailment, wtc cough, bloomberg.