Man covered in ash helping a woman during the 9/11 attacks
The health consequences related to the terrorist attacks in New York are only now beginning to manifest themselves, more than two decades later.
The terrorist attacks in the United States, on that tragic day, were the deadliest in historywith an official death toll of 2,977 (excluding the 19 terrorists).
Ness dia, four commercial planes were kidnapped by al-Qaeda. Two were launched against the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York, a third party rammed the building Pentagonin Washington DC, and the fourth, which is believed to have been destined for the Capitol, crashed in a field in Pennsylvania, after the passengers resisted the hijackers.
The majority of victims, 2,606, died at the site of the Twin Towers. There were also 125 victims at the Pentagon and 246 people, including crew and passengerson board the four planes.
However, the true balance of the attacks of September 11, 2001 is quite superiorexplains to .
In the 24 years following the attacks, tens of thousands of people developed health problems related to 9/11above all who was in Lower Manhattan in the hours, days and weeks after the Twin Towers collapsed.
The New York Fire Department, for example, lost 343 members on the same day, but has already exceeded 370 deaths from diseases associated with 9/11 in the following years.
Toxic dust and an invisible battlefield
The collapse of the Twin Towers pulverized the buildings and everything that was inside, releasing enormous clouds of dust and smoke which remained on the air for months.
Residents, workers, students and rescue teamsrecovery and cleaning breathed substances such as cement, glass, silica, asbestoslead and jet fuel, as well as chemicals from fires, such as dioxins and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.
Most of these substances are toxic or carcinogenic. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about 400 thousand people were exposed totoxic contaminants, risk of injury and high levels of stress after the attacks.
Since 2011, CDC’s World Trade Center (WTC) Health Program has been providing screening and medical treatment to first responders and 9/11 survivors. More than 136 thousand people are currently enrolled in the program, of which around 90 thousand already have a diagnosis of illness related to 9/11.
A growing wave of diseases, decades later
Among the diagnoses are various types of cancerwith emphasis on non-melanoma skin, prostate and breast cancer, respiratory diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, chronic rhinosinusitis (inflammation of the nasal sinuses) and post-traumatic stress disorder.
There is also evidence that the firefighters who were exposed to dust have unusually high rates of sarcoidosisa rare inflammatory disease that causes nodules to appear in organs.
There is no exact number of deaths for illnesses associated with September 11th. In March 2024, 6,897 members had died of the WTC Health Program, but this number includes all causes of deathnot just those related to September 11th.
Unfortunately, the health impact of the attacks will continue to increase as some cancers can take decades until they are detected after initial exposure to a carcinogen, the so-called cancer “latency period”.
For example, the mesotheliomaassociated with exposure to asbestos, has an average latency period of about 30 years — which leads some experts to predict a significant increase in this type of cancer among first responders and 9/11 survivors.
