Washington, December 03: US President Barack Obama has signed into law a bill seeking to provide medical care for emergency workers, who fell ill by the fumes left in the wake of September 11 attacks.
According to a statement issued by the White House on Sunday, Obama signed the bill at the Kaneohe Marine base near his vacation home in the state of Hawaii, where he is spending the Christmas holidays, AFP reported.
On December 22, the $7.4 billion 9/11 health bill was finally approved by the US Congress following a last-minute compromise with Republicans, who had blocked the bill in the Senate.
The measure is aimed at providing healthcare and compensation to firefighters, police officers and other first responders, who were sickened in the rubble of the World Trade Center due to inhalation of the smelting fumes left at the site of the September 11 attacks in 2001.
The health bill, better known as the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, was approved by the House of Representatives in September.
The title of the bill has been given after James Zadroga, a 34-year-old police officer, who died of a respiratory disease in 2006 after he contracted during rescue and recovery operations at Ground Zero.
Under the bill, $3.2 billion has been earmarked over the next eight years in order to monitor and treat injuries that people sustained due to exposure to toxic dust and debris at the site of the attacks.
The bill also allocates $4.2 billion to compensate for job and economic losses as there are nearly 60,000 people, who have enrolled in health monitoring and treatment programs related to the 9/11 attacks.
——–Agencies