N.Y. cop died from drugs not Ground Zero air: examiner (Reuters)

N.Y. cop died from drugs not Ground Zero air: examiner
Thu Oct 25, 2007 7:24pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York police detective died
of lung disease caused by injecting ground-up pills not
exposure to toxic air from working in the rubble of the
World Trade Center after the September 11 attacks, the
city's medical examiner said on Thursday.

James Zadroga died in January 2006 at the age of 34.
His family and police union believed his death was linked
to the hundreds of hours he had spent working at Ground
Zero after the September 11, 2001, attacks.

While a New Jersey pathologist linked Zadroga's death to
inhaling Ground Zero dust, according to a New York Times
report, the New York City chief medical examiner found
the cause was drugs injected into his blood.

"The lung disease is not due to anything that was inhaled
it was because of what was put through his blood stream,"
Ellen Borakove, spokeswoman for the chief medical examiner,
said on Thursday. "He ground up drugs and injected them."

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