The Pit's toll rising

James Zadroga, the 34-year-old Manhattan homicide detective buried this week, is believed to be the first member of the NYPD who worked on the Ground Zero cleanup to die.

But the Daily News has learned that an additional 22 men, mostly in their 30s and 40s, have died from causes their families say were accelerated by the toxic mix of chemicals that lodged in their bodies as they searched for survivors or participated in the cleanup after the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

Among them are private employees, a sanitation worker, a correction officer, a Con Ed worker, transit workers, firefighters and cops. They died from black lung and cancers of the esophagus and pancreas.

David Knecht, a Lucent Technologies employee, worked for two months to reestablish communications at businesses near Ground Zero. He died in March, leaving behind two girls, now ages 3 and 4.

"My husband was only 35 when he was diagnosed with lung cancer," said Cathleen Knecht, 38, of Berkeley Heights, N.J. "He was a nonsmoker and a swimmer."

Thousands more are sick, suffering from respiratory illnesses. Nearly 400 firefighters and paramedics have left the job because of career-ending illnesses that followed their work at Ground Zero.

"This was a toxic waste site," says David Worby, the attorney for some 5,200 Ground Zero workers. "People should have been walking around in moon suits. ... These guys are the tip of the iceberg."

Worby's firm has a class-action lawsuit pending in Manhattan Federal Court that accuses government officials and construction contractors of exposing workers to dangerous levels of toxins. An estimated 40,000 people worked at the site in the months following the attacks.

But city attorneys urge caution, saying a medical link is still to be established.

"Those 22 people did great work and I sympathize with their families," said Gary Shaffer, the attorney who's handling the city's defense of the claims. "I'm sympathetic to their desire to want to find a cause, but I think you need to be careful before making those connections."

Doctors who've treated the Ground Zero workers remain skeptical, particularly because cancers can remain dormant for 15 to 20 years, but they are alarmed at the large numbers of young people who've died.

"It's still too early to say if WTC responders are at increased risk for cancer," said Dr. Robin Herbert, director of the World Trade Center Health Effects Treatment Program at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. "But we remain very concerned. "

Bob Shore, a city correction officer, worked at the makeshift morgue at Ground Zero for at least two weeks, wearing only a paper mask.

At the end of his first day handling body parts, Shore climbed into the shower fully dressed and cried for two hours.

"He never regretted doing it," said his wife, Michelle Shore, 53, of Suffolk County, L.I. "He was my hero, the city's hero."

The 53-year-old father of two died last August of pancreatic cancer, which Shore's doctor said was related to his post-9/11 assignment.

Cancer ate away at his body, reducing the 300-pound former bodybuilder to about 110 pounds. His gallbladder, spleen and pancreas were removed.

Like other relatives of Trade Center recovery workers, Shore's widow says she's strapped with medical bills she can't imagine being able to pay.

"I don't even open the envelopes anymore," she said, estimating the debt at at least $200,000. "I write 'deceased' on them and send them back."