By David Seifman
The New York Post
Copyright 2007 N.Y.P. Holdings, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
A legislator hosting a gala fund-raising dinner for a controversial detoxification program for 9/11 rescue workers co-founded by Tom Cruise revealed yesterday he’s undergone the procedure himself.
“I will tell you I felt 100 times better after the program than I’ve felt in the last 15 years,” said City Councilman Hiram Monserrate (D-Queens).
The Post reported yesterday that Monserrate is one of the hosts of an April 19 fund-raiser for the New York Rescue Workers Detoxification Project, where Cruise is appearing, and where tickets are going for as much as $100,000 for a table of eight.
Officials said they hope to surpass last year’s event - which didn’t include Cruise - that raised $1.5 million.
Critics say the regimen of high doses of niacin, long saunas and ingestion of cold-pressed oils, based on the writings of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, is medically suspect.
But Monserrate said it has worked wonders for him and dozens of Ground Zero rescue workers who were exposed to high levels of toxins.
“I did not meet one person in this program who said to me, ‘Hiram, I did not feel better.’ I don’t have a science degree, but if it made them feel better, it should be made available to any rescue worker,” he said.
Intrigued and suffering from sleepless nights and a recurring upper respiratory ailment, Monserrate put himself through 30 days of exercise, dietary changes and 21/2-to-4 hour stints in a sauna.
“Literally, you’re flushing out for 30 days in every way conceivable all the toxins and other things that build up in a lifetime,” he said.
Jim Woodworth, president of the downtown clinic where the procedures are done, said that while he’s a Scientologist, the program is entirely secular.
“Our doctors are Jewish,” he pointed out. “We need to get past the bigotry and the hate speech. The simple truth is, it works.”
He said 780 rescue workers have undergone the free treatments.
Steve Kent of Canada’s University of Alberta, a sociologist who has studied Scientology for two decades, urged skepticism.
“Cruise’s support of this program would not be the first time he has waded in on important medical issues without having a medical background,” said Kent.
But Pat Bahnken, president of the EMTs and paramedics union, said the clinic treats his members the same as any other medical facility.
“I had concerns like everybody else. What is this whole thing with Scientology? But I would say to people if you get treated at Long Island Jewish Hospital they don’t hand you a Talmud. If you’re treated at St. Vincent’s they don’t hand you a bible,” Bahnken said.