James Zadroga (February 8, 1971[1] – January 5, 2006) was a New York City Police Department (NYPD) officer who died of a respiratory disease that has been attributed to his participation in rescue and recovery operations in the rubble of the World Trade Center following the September 11 attacks.

He was a healthy non-smoker and had no known history of asthma or other respiratory conditions before spending 450 hours participating in the recovery efforts at the 9/11 attack site.

[4] The September 11th Victim Compensation Fund awarded Zadroga a monetary settlement in excess of $1 million in 2004, after determining that his exposure to dust at Ground Zero had caused his respiratory illness.

The New York City Police Department Medical Board approved his application for permanent disability retirement that same year, after concluding that his illness was related to dust exposure.

[8] Then-Governor of New York George Pataki signed legislation on August 14, 2006, to expand death benefits to Ground Zero workers who die from cancer or respiratory diseases, under the presumption that the cause was due to exposure during recovery efforts.

[12] Initially, the latency period often associated with diagnosing cancer has created a potential hurdle in appropriately compensating individuals who may die or become ill in the future as a result of their exposure following the 2001 tragedy.