NY medical examiner who oversaw office on 9/11 dies at 79

Hirsch came under scrutiny in 2007 after concluding that retired police detective James Zadroga, who died of lung disease, wasn't sickened by inhaling toxic ground zero dust, as a colleague in New Jersey had ruled.

Hirsch believed Zadroga, who died in 2006, got the lung disease that killed him by injecting ground-up pills into his bloodstream, leaving traces of the pills in the lung tissue.

[...] a third medical examiner later found glass fragments in Zadroga's lungs and declared he died of "dust inhaled at ground zero."

Federal legislation that provides health monitoring and financial aid to sick Sept. 11 workers was later named the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Reauthorization Act.