The City’s Health Department examined the link between 9/11 and cancer and found that breathing the toxic air of the collapsed World Trade Center did NOT cause an increase in cancer, in either first responders or those who live and work downtown.
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While extended exposure to Ground Zero dust causing a variety of cancers has been a great concern of many New Yorkers, Steven Stellman, the research director of the WTC Health Registry, says:
“It has always been of concern that subsequent cases of cancer could have resulted. We found that there were effectively no statistically significant differences in either our rescue/recovery workers or in our nonrescue/recovery workers.”
The NY Post reports:
Just six months ago, the federal government moved to include a host of cancers among the illnesses covered by the $4.3 billion Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, named for the late NYPD first responder James Zadroga, who died of respiratory disease.
But researchers for the city looked at 55,778 people and compared their health data with typical cancer rates in New York State. Of that group, 32,000 were those who worked at the 16-acre WTC site, either in the initial rescue phase or during the nine months it took to clear the area where the Twin Towers stood.
Stellman claims experts long feared there would be an increase in cancer cases after 9/11 because the towers were among “the last structures in New York City where it was permissible to use asbestos” and while these results should calm the nerves of some, City Health Commissioner Thomas Farley disagrees. Farley says the report:
“…won’t settle the question because it’s still too early . . . Cancers take 20 years to develop, and we might see something different 20 years down the line.”
Sounds like there will still be a lingering concern on this matter.
SOURCE: NY Post
