Seventeen years after September 11, 2001, people are still dying from illnesses caused by the terrorist attacks, and soon, these deaths are expected to surpass the death toll from that dark day.
A total of 2,977 innocent people died on 9/11; more than 2,000 additional people died from diseases attributed to the attack, and close to 10,000 additional first responders and people who were near the World Trade Center and exposed to toxic debris on that day have been diagnosed with cancer, USA Today reports.
Dr. Michael Crane, the medical director of the World Trade Center Health Program Clinical Center of Excellence at Mount Sinai told USA Today that he is nervous, claiming that the rate for some cancers is 30% higher in comparison to the general population. He also said that it takes time before cancers develop from environmental exposures, adding, “we believe that is what’s happening now.”
Some of the toxic materials more than 90,000 people were exposed to included asbestos, burning jet fuel, burning computer parts, pulverized concrete and myriad other substances.
“No one has ever codified or captured all the stuff that was released from that pile,” Crane said. “It’s an unknown exposure.”
USA Today Reports:
• In 2017, 23 current or former members of the New York City Police Department died of 9/11-related diseases. That’s the same number of NYPD members that perished on Sept. 11, 2001.
• The FDNY lost a stunning 343 members on Sept. 11, 2001. Since then, line-of-duty deaths linked to 9/11 are approaching 180, now well over half lost on the day of the attacks. So many have died since the attacks that last year, a new tablet had to be added to the Hall of Heroes at 1 Police Plaza to accommodate all the names of the fallen.
• One FBI agent was reported killed in Sept. 11, 2001, attacks; as of this August, the FBI reports a death toll of 15 from cancers linked to toxic exposure during the subsequent investigation and cleanup.
• According to John Feal, founder of the Feal Good Foundation that supports 9/11 rescue and recovery workers,there have been more losses so far this year – 163 – than in any year since he started tabulating them in 2008.”
Most of the first responders did not wear adequate safety gear in the aftermath of 9/11 because they did not understand the danger of the burning jet fuel and hazardous material, the LA Times reports.
Dr. Ray Basri, a professor at New York Medical College who is also an internist and Middletown, New York volunteer firefighter, said he doesn’t think “we have reached 15 percent of the cancer we’re going to see,” adding, “I really do think we’re in the very early stages.”
FBI Agent Thomas O’Connor, who is president of the FBI Agents Association, told the LA Times that “[i]t’s like Bin Laden is still reaching out from the gave.”
“It affects us all in serious ways,” O’Connor said. “People are dying, others are sick. Those that are not yet sick wonder — is that headache, is it really cancer? Is that sore hip really cancer?”