Thoroughly and altogether helpfully, Mayor Bloomberg yesterday gave official measure to the serious and growing health consequences suffered by the forgotten victims of 9/11 - along with unequivocal recognition that government must do more to care for their needs.

The mayor pulled no punches. He said large numbers of people - both Ground Zero responders, and residents and workers in the area - have been sickened by exposure to Trade Center toxins. He predicted still worse may come with the emergence of cancers and potentially fatal lung illnesses. And he called on the federal government to markedly increase funding for treatment programs.

In the minds of many, these issues have long since been settled. Is there anyone, for example, who now doubts that lung ailments are rampant among responders? No reasonable person could hold such a view. Even so, Bloomberg's action yesterday was an important milestone in the fight to win care and compensation for Americans who suffer for having done their part following an act of war upon the nation.

This was the mayor of New York City, a nationally recognized public health advocate, laying out the facts as they were compiled by a special panel over the course of five months of study. He had demanded data, and the panel produced it with clinical, scientific authority.

There is now, for the first time, a comprehensive estimate of how many men and women participated in Ground Zero rescue and recovery operations, and the number - 123,084 - is triple the figure previously accepted by researchers. There is also, for the first time, a calculation of the total annual cost of 9/11-related health care - a whopping $392 million. And there is the sobering fact that just maintaining the services provided by Mount Sinai Medical Center, the Fire Department and Bellevue Hospital, the three main Trade Center treatment programs, will cost $153 million next year.

The sums are vast, and the bills are coming due quickly. Counting $25 million promised by President Bush on Jan. 30, Mount Sinai and the FDNY have the wherewithal only to make it through the end of the year. Bloomberg is calling on the feds to pick up the rest of the tab, as they must, and to commit to do so for the next 20 years, as is inescapably necessary.

The mayor will also press Congress to reopen the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund that distributed $6 billion to the survivors of 2,880 people killed on 9/11 and $1 billion to 2,680 people who were injured. He will urge Washington to start the fund with $1 billion earmarked as insurance against 9/11-related liability claims.

As we have said many times, restarting the compensation fund would be an ideal way to distribute the money to deserving people, ending humongous, costly, time-consuming court suits and preventing trial lawyers from laying claim to as much as $400 million of the money.

When Bloomberg testifies before Congress, as he soon will, he will go armed with unassailable information. His case will be all the more compelling because he has the facts. They were well worth waiting for.

Bloomberg also strengthened the city's own efforts. The WTC Environmental Health Center at Bellevue, which serves downtown residents and workers, will be expanded. The mayor's office will establish a "working group" of public, environmental and mental health experts to monitor developing trends among Ground Zero responders, and the Health Department will hire a WTC health coordinator to disseminate the latest information on illnesses and services to the public.

Last July, in the first installment of this series, the Daily News singled out Bloomberg as the official best suited to lead a campaign for the forgotten victims of 9/11. We wrote:

"What's urgently needed is dynamic leadership by someone with the muscle and brains to tackle the World Trade Center health crisis on all fronts - medical, legal, social, political and more. The person who best fits the bill today is Michael Bloomberg."

The News called on Bloomberg:

"To take the full measure of this growing epidemic.

"To devise appropriately funded treatment programs so that all 9/11 responders have access to the quality of care provided to firefighters.

"To establish monitoring systems that can detect swiftly the emergence of new diseases or improved treatments.

"To create a clearinghouse that would inform workers and physicians about illnesses and proper treatments, and keep them up to date on the latest developments.

"To begin to acknowledge that service after 9/11 did, in fact, cause fatalities, rather than let city officials keep insisting that there is no absolute, total scientific proof that anyone died from illnesses contracted at Ground Zero.

"To galvanize the federal government into supporting long-term monitoring and treatment programs."

And now he is delivering in earnest.

(c) New York Daily News, L.P.: reproduced with permission.