New study finds 9/11 firefighters have higher risks of cancer

Sep 3 2011

Research published in the Lancet suggests that the firefighters who were at the World Trade Center are 19 percent more likely to get cancer than those who were not there.

The New York Times: Study Suggests Higher Cancer Risk For 9/11 Firefighters
A new study says firefighters who toiled in the wreckage of the World Trade Center in 2001 were 19 percent more likely to develop cancer than those who were not there, the strongest evidence to date of a possible link between work at ground zero and cancer (Ember, 9/1).

Los Angeles Times: 9/11 Study: Multiple Health Woes Persist For Rescue Workers
Ten years after two jets crashed into the World Trade Center during the Sept. 11 attacks, scientists are still learning about the long-term health effects of the disaster. Now researchers led by a team from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City have reported anew that physical and mental illnesses were very common across a large group of 9/11 emergency responders -; and remained persistent for 10% to 30% of them a full nine years after the disaster (Brown, 9/1).

The Wall Street Journal: Study Points to WTC Cancer Link
Firefighters who worked at Ground Zero are 19% more likely to have cancer than their colleagues who did not work at the site, according to newly published research that could pave the way for government payments to those suffering from some types of cancer. The research marks the first substantive findings on the difficult question of whether working at the World Trade Center site increased cancer risk. ... Published in the Sept. 3 issue of the Lancet, the research led by Dr. David Prezant, the head doctor for the New York Fire Department, concludes that an association between World Trade Center exposure and cancer is "biologically plausible'' due to findings of "a modest excess of cancer in exposed firefighters" (Barrett and Waller, 9/2).

The Associated Press: Dusty Legacy Of 9/11 Still A Medical Mystery
A decade's worth of study has answered only a handful of questions about the hundreds of health conditions that people like Ashman suspect are related to the tons of gray dust that fell on the city when the trade center collapsed. While people have blamed everything from strange rashes to skin cancer on the dust, the list of illnesses even tentatively linked to the disaster is short (Caruso, 9/1).

Medscape: Health Effects From 9-11 Attacks: Special Lancet Issue The finding that death rates are actually lower [than the general population] could be explained by the worker cohort effect: Most participants were employed, and those who are employed are healthier than the general population. Second, voluntary participants in health studies tend to be healthier than the general population (Kling, 9/1).