By Tara Kyle
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
DOWNTOWN — Less than a week after Osama bin Laden was killed, hundreds of 9/11 rescue and recovery workers attended a health and education conference intended to help tackle the enduring impacts of the terror attacks.
After opening remarks from New York Congressman Jerrold Nadler and New Jersey Senator Robert Menendez and a keynote about health care provisions under the James Zadroga Act, attendees broke into workshop sessions at United Federation of Teachers headquarters on Broadway, near Morris Street.
Topics at the conference, organized by the World Trade Center Medical Monitoring and Treatment Program, included upper airway conditions, gastrointestinal conditions, mental health and wellness techniques.
One disabled National Guardsman, Ed Afanador, 40, of New Jersey said that although he suffers from worsening respiratory problems, he was most interested in accessing information about mental health. The simple camaraderie of sitting alongside other first responders at the conference also helps, he said.
"For the longest time, there was really no one to reach out to," Afanador said. "It's the people, knowing there's others like you, and you're not crazy."
Union iron worker and volunteer rescuer John Finamore, 51, of Queens, said he was looking to learn more about how to manage the colon cancer that he attributes to four months at Ground Zero.
"My health isn't so good anymore," he said. "There's only so much information you can access off the internet."
Lack of information about how to access health care and compensation is a pervasive problem among first responders, said attendee and advocate John Feal (who founded the FealGood Foundation after his left foot was crushed by a steal beam during the recovery efforts).
That's especially true for recovery workers who might not be able to afford a computer or even a phone bill due to mounting medical bills, he said.
"We need to do this on a daily basis," said Feal, 44, of Long Island. "We've been riding an emotional wave with the killing of the world's most terrible man. But I'm not going to do a song and dance when people are still getting sicker and dying."
