New Horror For Heroes: First Proof Of
Higher Cancer Rate Among WTC Responders
NY Daily News 8/13/09
The health care nightmare of many
of America's bravest men and women is getting worse.
For the first time, experts who treat World Trade Center
responders have reported on an unusual cancer among their
patients. It is a finding the doctors had hoped they'd never see
but feared was inevitable.
The study, published by physicians with the Mount Sinai World
Trade Center Medical Monitoring and Treatment Program in the
peer-reviewed Journal of Occupational and Environmental
Medicine, describes eight cases of multiple myeloma - a serious
but manageable blood cancer - among 28,000 patients who breathed
the poisonous air at Ground Zero. Four of those cases were in
patients under age 45, a rate four times what is expected in the
general population.
The numbers are small, but they are impossible to ignore.
Normally, multiple myeloma is found in four out of every 100,000
people. It is considered an older people's disease and generally
takes 10 to 20 years to develop.
There was nothing normal about the illnesses of the four WTC
patients, all of them law enforcement officers.
One patrolled the perimeter of Ground Zero for six months after
the terrorist attack and was diagnosed in 2005 at age 34. The
second was caught in the dust cloud on 9/11, worked for 218 days
on The Pile and at Fresh Kills landfill, among other duty, and
was diagnosed in 2007 at age 37. The third sifted debris and did
morgue work at Ground Zero for five months and was diagnosed in
2005 at 40. The fourth worked rescue and recovery and was
diagnosed in 2004 at 43.
All were exposed to a chemical stew that included benzene, which
has been linked to blood cancers. All became ill within just a
few years.
The authors note that their study does not prove cause and
effect. But it does prove, again, the overwhelming need to keep
a close eye on all those who had sustained exposure to the
toxins released when the towers fell.
Experts have documented tens of thousands of cases of
WTC-related lung ailments and posttraumatic stress. Soon, they
may be grappling with even worse illnesses.
That's why Congress must come through with steady health care
and compensation funding for those selfless Americans who
sacrificed their health for their country. Once, they were the
forgotten victims of 9/11. They must be able to rest assured
they won't be forgotten again.
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