More distressing news related to Ground Zero keeps coming out. A probe has been launched into the Deutsche Bank building fire that killed two firefighters on August 18th; community leaders are criticizing the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation for hiring a demolition subcontractor with insufficient experience and numerous city and federal violations listed against it. The building pipe that was supposed to supply the firefighter with water had been turned off.

Also, findings released by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene show that Ground Zero rescue and recovery workers have developed asthma at a rate that is 12 times what would be expected for adults.

Elsewhere:

Associated Press: Thirty Mexican nationals with visas to work in the U.S. plan to sue a Mississippi police captain, charging him with kidnapping with intent to enslave, false imprisonment, human trafficking, and violations of the workers’ civil and constitutional rights. (Hat tip to Campaign for America’s Future.)

Hartford Courant (via WSJ Health Blog): Research into behavioral traits and hormones that buffer the effects of psychological trauma may in the future help “emotionally inoculate” troops.

Rocky Mountain News: According to the Energy Department’s inspector general, workers at current nuclear weapons plants are not getting required regular tests for radiation contamination.

BBC News: Dozens, possibly hundreds, of children are working in the abandoned Soviet-era coal mines in southern Kyrgyzstan.

Economist: The safety record of China’s coal industry seems to be slowly improving, due in part to closures of the least-safe mines and harsher penalties for local officials who fail to crack down on unsafe operations.