From the article:
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By Amanda Schaffer
Posted Thursday, Oct. 21, 2004, at 9:25 AM PT
In September 2002, the New York Rescue Workers Detox Project began to
offer free "detoxification treatment" to firefighters, police
officers, and others exposed to high levels of toxic debris in the
aftermath of the World Trade Center's collapse. The detox
program—based on the teachings of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard
and detailed in his book Clear Body, Clear Mind—purports to "flush"
poisons from the body's fat stores using an intensive regimen of
jogging, oil ingestion, sauna, and high doses of vitamins,
particularly niacin. Funded largely by private donations—most notably
from celebrity Scientologist Tom Cruise, as has been widely
reported—treatment is provided at a clinic on Fulton Street in
Manhattan as well as at a newer clinic on Long Island. Roughly 240
rescue workers and 80 downtown residents have undergone the program;
most have paid nothing, although a few non-rescue workers have been
asked to contribute $5,000 apiece.
Critics contend that the regimen lacks any scientific basis. But some
former participants, with whom I spoke during a daylong visit to the
clinic, believe that the program has dramatically improved their
health and are lobbying local officials, as well as members of
Congress, to support it with public funding. (To date, at least
$30,000 in city money has been allocated; this money appears in the
most recent city budget, and an additional $300,000 from city sources
is potentially in the offing, according to Councilwoman Margarita
Lopez. The program has also received $2.3 million in funding from
private donors, including Cruise.) Program advocates, including former
patients, staff doctors, and spokespeople for the clinic, are also
reaching out to physicians by setting up informational meetings in an
effort to gain mainstream acceptance.
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Read it at http://slate.msn.com/id/2108471/
J. Spaceman
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