Dear WTC Community Member,

Almost a year ago after hearing many  concerns that people in our Ground
Zero community had regarding the Mt. Sinai  WTC Medical Monitoring & Treatment
Program &/or Centers of Excellence, I  initiated an effort to communicate
them to the program directors Dr.'s  Jacqueline Moline & Michael Crane. I
also reached out to the New York City  Department of Health & Mental Hygiene
(NYC DOHMH), who in collaboration with  the Agency for Toxic Substances &
Disease Registry (ATSDR) created the WTC  Health Registry in July '02.

Over the subsequent months, I posted email  requests for input from the
9/11 community via direct contact to persons on my  e-list, or through various
WTC-related groups. I asked for people to contact me  with their list of
concerns & any attempts made to communicate their  concerns directly to Mt.
Sinai or the Centers of Excellence via email or  letters. I wanted to compile a
fairly exhaustive account of issues which our  community feels have not
been addressed by the monitoring or treatment programs.  

My intent was to get a consensus of any similar issues & an  understanding
of any other concerns unique to you. I wanted to have an idea if  you'd
voiced these concerns in writing to the program's treatment doctors, or  
directors...& whether or not you'd had your issues resolved.

I have  heard many in our community verbally "venting" about the
inadequacies of the WTC  MMTP, yet, when I asked for folks to email me with those
concerns, I got few  responses with few specifics. My sister Denise Villamia & I
have both  written the WTC MMTP directors with our respective
thoughts...but we are 2  people among the approximate 27,000 participants in the program
& the 71,000  registered with the NYC WTC Health Registry (WTCHR).

According to a 2008  report titled "An Overview of 9/11 Experiences &
Respiratory & Mental  Health Conditions Among World Trade Center Health Registry
Enrollees" published  in the Journal of Urban Health: Bulletin of the New
York Academy of Medicine,  Volume 85, No. 6...the number of persons believed
to have been affected by toxic  exposure has been estimated by the WTCHR to
be 409,492. This figure includes the  responders, volunteers, area residents,
employers/employees, &  students...besides those who just happened to be in
the vicinity when the towers  fell. Although 409,492 were eligible to
enroll between September '03 &  November '04, only 71,437 did...reflecting only
17.4% of the estimated exposed  population. And this figure includes an
overlap of those who may also be  enrolled in the Mt. Sinai WTC MMTP. So the
number of those being "monitored" is  clearly a fraction of the total.

Therefore, as it is, the programs in  place are servicing a very small
portion of the affected population. All the  more reason that we who are
enrolled in them must make every effort to insure  that our conditions are being
properly tracked, recorded & evaluated for  patterns of symptoms that are
manifesting in an inordinately high percentage of  our population. If we do not
feel this is being done to the best of their  ability...we have to SPEAK UP.

I recently received word that Dr.'s  Moline & Crane are making themselves
available to meet with us the beginning  of the 2nd week in April regarding
our concerns. So there is not as much time as  I would have liked to gather
input from you in preparation of our meeting. Dr.  Moline is leaving the WTC
MMTP & this is the only window of opportunity she  has to meet with us. I do
not know what position she will be assuming, nor who  will be replacing
her.

If you want to see improvements made in the  current 9/11 health care
programs, it is imperative that you share your  impressions now so that I may
bring them to the discussion table. We have a  unique opportunity to sit with
these directors & have an exchange of ideas  on how their programs can better
serve our respective needs going forward.  

Please set aside a few minutes of your time in the next couple of days  &
email me a bullet point list of any aspect of the program you would like  
addressed at the meeting. This can be with the "monitoring" part, the  
"treatment" part or both. Those of us at the meeting are going to be  representing
you. We each have had our own personal experience with the program  which we
will be sharing, but we want to be as inclusive as possible. If you  have at
any point expressed your concerns to them in writing, please tell us to  
whom you addressed your letter or email, the date & nature of your concern,  &
if your issue was acknowledged & resolved or ignored.

I  realize I am asking you to work on this in the midst of celebrating
Passover  & Easter. The timing is unfortunately not ideal, but we had little
control  as to the scheduling of the date for the meeting. I'd been in contact
with them  since the fall regarding our request to meet. That is why I was
trying to gather  your feedback back then...so we would be prepared for the
possibility of meeting  with them. After all these months, I was given the
date the end of last  week...& there is no flexibility...so there are only
these next few days to  compile our data.

I'd appreciate your understanding how important this  is. What goes on at
this meeting can very positively affect the care we receive  from the
program. Let your voice count. We need to make a collaborative effort.  I look
forward to hearing from you. Please send your responses directly to my  email:
_phoenix...@yahoo.com_ (mailto:phoenix...@yahoo.com)

Gratefully,

Rhonda Villamia