by GEOFF EARLE
New York's firefighters are retiring at five times pre-9/11 rates because of heart and lung diseases blamed on the attacks, the department's chief medical officer said yesterday during a Washington meeting with congressional leaders. "In the work they do, it's impossible to send them back with respiratory problems," said Dr. Kerry Kelly, who joined Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and other legislators to call for treatment and monitoring of first responders. Before the terror attacks, about 30 firefighters retired each year because of pulmonary problems. Now that number has jumped to between 120 and 160 each year, she said. "This is not going away," Clinton said of the health issue. She wants Congress to spend $1.9 million to treat first responders. Even five years after the attacks, studies found "firefighters who cannot breathe, who cannot continue working and who are sick - and, I would add, dying," Clinton said.
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