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A 70-page settlement agreement has been drafted to address the suits by rescue and cleanup workers over alleged illnesses and injuries suffered while working the World Trade Center site after the terrorist attacks, The New York Times reported Thursday.

"There have been intensive discussions going on looking to settlements of individual cases and globally of all cases", said Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein, who is overseeing the litigation.

"The parties have been working very hard", he said. "The settlement is complicated."

More than 9,000 plaintiffs filed lawsuits against 90 government agencies and private companies beginning in 2006, the Times reported.

The suits claim there were inadequate safety procedures and supervision to protect them from exposure to contaminants while working in the debris at the site.

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