US movie star Tom Cruise has helped raise $US1.2 million to treat emergency workers exposed to toxic materials following the September 11 terrorist strikes in New York.
Cruise, 41, pitched in to help raise cash for the alternative treatment for rescuers suffering debilitating effects from toxic exposure in the recovery and clean-up effort following the 2001 attacks in New York.
The heart-throb actor, who is a keen member of the Church of Scientology, backed the drive to provide a detox regimen designed by church founder L Ron Hubbard and outlined in his book Clear Body Clear Mind.
Mr Hubbard’s publisher, Los Angeles-based Bridge Publications, says the regimen consists of “exercise, sauna sweat-out, vitamins and minerals to help rescue workers cleanse their bodies of toxic residues”.
It has helped about 200 emergency workers.
“Once the (World Trade Centre) towers had gone down and we were faced with the aftermath of their collapse, I could not get out of my mind that huge cloud billowing across Manhattan,” Cruise told a fundraiser dinner.
“I worried about those who had survived and been exposed.
“Shortly thereafter I visited Ground Zero and knew immediately that not only would people be getting ill, very ill, but that it would be sooner rather than later.”
The cash raised will go towards treating around 400 firefighters and emergency workers at a detox center on New York’s Long Island.