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N.Y. WKC Law § 161

This is the official text of N.Y. WKC Law § 161, part of New York’s WKC Law — part of the compiled statutory law of New York, published by the state as "WKC Law." Browse the sections below, each linked to its official government source.

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Definitions

Official statutory text

§ 161. Definitions. Whenever used in this article:\n 1. "Participant in World Trade Center rescue, recovery, or cleanup\noperations" means any (a) employee who within the course of employment,\nor (b) volunteer upon presentation to the board of evidence satisfactory\nto the board that he or she:\n (i) participated in the rescue, recovery, or cleanup operations at the\nWorld Trade Center site between September eleventh, two thousand one and\nSeptember twelfth, two thousand two; or\n (ii) worked at the Fresh Kills Land Fill in New York city between\nSeptember eleventh, two thousand one and September twelfth, two thousand\ntwo, or\n (iii) worked at the New York city morgue or the temporary morgue on\npier locations on the west side of Manhattan between September eleventh,\ntwo thousand one and September twelfth, two thousand two, or\n (iv) worked on the barges between the west side of Manhattan and the\nFresh Kills Land Fill in New York city between September eleventh, two\nthousand one and September twelfth, two thousand two.\n 2. "World Trade Center site" means anywhere below a line starting from\nthe Hudson River and Canal Street; east on Canal Street to Pike Street;\nsouth on Pike Street to the East River; and extending to the lower tip\nof Manhattan.\n 3. "Qualifying condition" means any of the following diseases or\nconditions resulting from a hazardous exposure during participation in\nWorld Trade Center rescue, recovery or clean-up operations:\n (a) Diseases of the upper respiratory tract and mucosae, including\nconditions such as conjunctivitis, rhinitis, sinusitis, pharyngitis,\nlaryngitis, vocal cord disease, upper airway hyper-reactivity and\ntracheo-bronchitis, or a combination of such conditions;\n (b) Diseases of the lower respiratory tract, including but not limited\nto bronchitis, asthma, reactive airway dysfunction syndrome, and\ndifferent types of pneumonitis, such as hypersensitivity, granulomatous,\nor eosinophilic;\n (c) Diseases of the gastroesophageal tract, including esophagitis and\nreflux disease, either acute or chronic, caused by exposure or\naggravated by exposure;\n (d) Diseases of the psychological axis, including post-traumatic\nstress disorder, anxiety, depression, or any combination of such\nconditions; or\n (e) New onset diseases resulting from exposure as such diseases occur\nin the future including cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease,\nasbestos-related disease, heavy metal poisoning, musculoskeletal disease\nand chronic psychological disease.\n 4. "Disablement" shall have the same meaning as defined in section\nthirty-seven of this chapter and determined by the board in the same\nmanner as provided in section forty-two of this chapter.\n

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.