Nearly 70% of rescue workers exposed to toxic dust at ground zero became ill as a result, a study released yesterday said, citing a correlation between respiratory illness and recovery work after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks.

In the largest study yet of health concerns among rescue workers, doctors at Mount Sinai Medical Center said they have confirmed a direct link between recovery work and lung disease among workers as the fifth anniversary of the attacks nears.

“These results today confirm our worst fears,” a doctor who heads the World Trade Center Medical Monitoring Program Advisory Committee, James Melius, said. Citing a “stew” of pulverized concrete, shattered glass, and other toxins that were in the air around ground zero, doctors said workers inhaled these substances deep into their lungs and sinus cavities. “Many of our patients are not getting better,” Dr. Herbert said. “They are likely to suffer for the rest of their lives.”

Meanwhile, Mayor Bloomberg yesterday announced a sweeping series of programs to step up the city’s monitoring and treatment programs. Mr. Bloomberg stopped short of linking his initiatives to the findings of doctors at Mount Sinai, but he cited new data collected from a variety of resources pointing to long-term health effects of the attack. The new initiatives, he said, “will more effectively meet the current and future needs of those who unselfishly gave to our city in the days of our greatest need.”

Still, doctors at Mount Sinai reported yesterday that 61% of the responders who were symptom-free before contributing to recovery efforts at the World Trade Center developed respiratory ailments during or after their time there.

“There should no longer be any doubt about the health effects on World Trade Center responders,” the co-director of the Mount Sinai group that has monitored about 16,000 ground zero workers, Robin Herbert, said. “Our patients are sick and will need treatment for the rest of their lives.”

The findings, to be published tomorrow in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, are based on medical exams conducted on 9,442 patients between July 2002 and April 2004. Doctors focused on respiratory health — and in particular on what is known as “World Trade Center cough” — finding that one-third of responders had abnormal pulmonary functions, a rate twice what is expected among the general population, doctors said. They also said close to 60% of patients reported persistent symptoms up to two and a half years after the attacks.

Joining doctors, lawmakers sharply criticized the federal government, describing an uphill battle to secure funding for monitoring and treatment programs for workers. “This study, I hope, puts to rest any doubt about what happened to those who were exposed,” Senator Clinton said.

Still, the mayor tempered any conclusions about health claims directly linked to September 11.

The $37.6 million expansion of the city’s monitoring and treatment programs announced yesterday comes amid increased scrutiny over the Bloomberg administration’s response to health concerns to date. Among the new initiatives is a new World Trade Center Environmental Health Center at Bellevue Hospital/NYU Medical Center, slated to open in January, in addition to an expansion of the city Health Department’s World Trade Center Unit, which will serve as a clearinghouse for information crucial to monitoring and treating illnesses stemming from September 11. Mr. Bloomberg said a new mayoral review panel would coordinate city agencies and would report to him within three months. He also called for the reopening of the Victim’s Compensation Fund, which closed in 2004.

The announcement comes weeks after Governor Pataki signed three bills to expand benefits for World Trade Center responders. The mayor opposed the legislation, saying it lacked funding and would cost city taxpayers more than half a billion dollars.

The mayor made no mention of the state laws yesterday, but he stepped up calls for increased federal support for September 11 health programs. “Clearly, the attacks on the World Trade Center was an attack on America, and addressing the long-term health effects of that attack is a responsibility that I believe all Americans share,” he said.

Mr. Bloomberg added, however: “We expect the federal government to shoulder its responsibilities, and we hope very much that it will. But we are not waiting for Washington or anyone else to do for us what we can and must do ourselves.”

When asked about the Mount Sinai findings, Mr. Bloomberg said, “Today’s science is that you can’t say directly. There is no way to tell for sure, and you’ve got to be very careful.”

On the Mount Sinai campus following the release of the hospital’s study, an EMT rescue technician who spent months at ground zero, John Graham, delivered an impassioned plea to lawmakers to speed up a process for disabled workers like him to receive worker’s compensation claims and social security funding. “I’m getting tired. I need help,” he said.