BLUE SWEAT
The first rescue workers started the program on September 28, 2002. From the beginning, it was apparent that the program was causing changes. "One of the men was in the sauna, and he touched his towel to his skin and it turned blue." said Dr. Dahlgren. "His sweat was really blue, a bright blue color. We cut out a section of the towel and sent it to the laboratory for analysis, and it came back with very high levels of manganese and other metals, too."
The finding had considerable interest for Dr. Dahlgren. "Manganese is present in structural steel—about three percent of the steel is manganese," he said. "So when the Trade Towers came down, they undoubtedly exposed people to manganese vapor and dust. Manganese has some interesting characteristics—it causes a disease identical to Parkinson's that usually ends up appearing anywhere from 5 to 10 years after the exposure."
To date, more than 50 rescue workers—including more than 30 firefighters—have completed the program. {I was number 123- Rhio} Clients continue to relate a variety of manifestations to clinic director Jim Woodworth. "Men have come in to tell me their bowel movements have been green or blue, or smelled like smoke. Some have had black paste coming out of the pores of their skin in the sauna. Their sweat has stained towels purple, blue, orange, yellow and black." he said.
"One client complained that he could taste soot from the site in his sweat in his mouth." said Woodworth. "We collected about two tablespoons of his sweat and held it up to the light. There were millions of tiny bits of dust—you could see it with the naked eye; his sweat was grey."
"We're interested in capturing and analyzing these substances," said Arlene Rich, treatment supervisor at Downtown Medical. "But right now the main focus is addressing the complaints that come consistently from those who arrive for treatment—shortness of breath, cough, headache, unrelenting fatigue, inability to sleep, acid reflux, skin rash, joint pain, memory loss, and extreme irritability, among other symptons. We've had very encouraging results with all of these problems."
