Nearly seven years after the destruction of the World Trade Center many New Yorkers continue to suffer from mental and physical health problems. In response, the Centers for Disease Control recently announced it would contribute a grant of $30 million toward treatment for people who have experienced health problems generated by the disaster.

The collapse of the World Trade Center towers created and dispersed an enormous cloud of dust that was full of toxins and harsh chemicals, including asbestos dust, lead dust, glass fibers, and toxic gases. Among the most toxic of these is asbestos, known to cause asbestosis, mesothelioma and other forms of cancer.  Asbestos fibers may be the most insidious, as the lethal diseases they cause can lie dormant for many years.

Many people who breathed in the dust, including local residents, office workers, firefighters, and volunteer rescue workers, have since developed serious health problems such as severe lung disease and certain types of cancer. Exposure to the traumatic events of the day and the days after has also caused many people to suffer from anxiety, depression, and signs of trauma.

Area hospitals continue to provide treatment and monitoring for people with health problems related to the events of 9/11. These services are provided at no cost for the people who need them, but eventually the hospitals are going to want to recoup costs. As time passes, treatment of asbestos-related diseases may cause an increase in costs. Illnesses caused by asbestos usually take 15 or more years to develop, and can be very expensive to treat. For example, mesothelioma treatment is very expensive since the cancer is quite aggressive and treatments require intensive medical attention and equipment.

Sarcoidosis is a systemic disease that can affect any organ. “Common symptoms are vague, such as fatigue unchanged by sleep, lack of energy, weight loss, aches and pains, dry eyes, blurry vision, shortness of breath, a dry hacking cough or skin lesions.”  The disease can lead to long term, serious side effects including fatality.

These symptoms are consistent with the problems reported by many first responders and workers involved in the rescue and clean-up efforts at the World Trade Center.  According to a report published and discussed on an online medical information site, “We report here that the incidence of sarcoidosis among FDNY WTC rescue workers (firefighters and EMS workers) was significantly increased when compared to the years before WTC dust exposure.  This was especially true during the first 12 months after WTC dust exposure.”

The report goes on to note that  “The lay press has reported four case fatalities in non-FDNY WTC dust-exposed subjects due to interstitial pulmonary fibrosis, sarcoidosis (cardiopulmonary involvement), and granulomatous pneumonitis.”  All of this medical language adds up to the fact that there were tens of thousands of workers and New York residents exposed to toxic air pollution following the 9/11 disaster.  With many pulmonary afflictions such as the lung cancer mesothelioma, the initial exposure to pollutants does not result in lethal diseases manifesting themselves until years later.

To many in the medical community, the impact of the pollution released by the collapse of the World Trade Center is just now beginning to come into focus.  It is impossible to define cause-and-effect with regard to World Trade Center diseases, but it is clear that there is a relationship – with potentially serious consequences for thousands of people.  The study report continues: “What could have caused the increased incidence of sarcoidosis among FDNY rescue workers, many within the first year after WTC dust exposure? More than 400 substances have been identified in airborne and settled samples of WTC dust.”

Medical statistics argue for a complex analysis of World Trade Center diseases.  Once again, the report says, “WTC dust-induced asthma and AHR could represent a separate disease resulting from massive exposure to dust constituents coexisting with WTC-[sarcoidosis].

“This hypothesis is supported by the fact that the predominant clinical syndrome in workers, volunteers, and residents participating in health monitoring programs following WTC exposure has been… inflammation involving the upper and lower respiratory tracts that results in WTC cough (new or worsening asthma, AHR, sinusitis, and/or gastroesophageal reflux). This syndrome has affected thousands of workers and volunteers.”

From September 11, 2001 to the present, the evidence of toxic materials impacting World Trade Center responders and volunteers has been overwhelming. During the early stages of the disaster response, the New York Fire Department developed a WTC screening program, which documented a substantial proportion of respiratory symptoms among emergency workers.

The Environmental Protection Agency reported enormous density figures for airborne particles in the hours after the initial disaster. Lesser amounts of pollutants continued to rise from the site for weeks to follow. Exposures from smoldering fires continued until December 2001. The EPA determined that WTC dust “contained pulverized (alkaline) cement, glass fibers, asbestos, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and polychlorinated furans and dioxins.”

A study conducted by a health consortium in New York from 2002-2004 showed symptoms that included a wide assortment of respiratory problems. “Participants experienced numerous other symptoms, including a substantial proportion with incident and persistent musculoskeletal symptoms, such as low back pain and upper or lower extremity pain…Other incident and persistent symptoms included heartburn eye irritation and frequent headache.” – Centers for Disease Control, Newsletter September 2004.

The report concludes that “the findings in WTC examinees are consistent with current understanding of WTC exposures; however, the persistence of symptoms for >1 year after the 9/11 event is a new finding and requires further study.”

Victims of exposure to WTC airborne pollutants are exhibiting many of the symptoms that have been found in people who have been exposed to toxic inhalants and developed life-threatening symptoms years later. The CDC sees the persistence of existing symptoms as a potential warning for World Trade Center disease victims.

According to the EPA, asbestos was just one of the toxic pollutants generated by the 9/11 disaster. As thousands of Americans have learned, asbestos exposure alone can lead to mesothelioma, a lethal form of lung cancer. It is clear that public health authorities expect the medical problems cause by WTC dust and smoke to develop into long-term afflictions for some of the workers and city residents who were exposed. If you are one of those people, contact one of the WTC disease support programs and make sure that your health is carefully monitored for the foreseeable future.

There is overwhelming evidence that people who were among the emergency response crews to the 9/11 disaster, and people who live and work in the neighborhood of the World Trade Center site have suffered enormously high rates of respiratory difficulties. The near-term symptoms of these diseases include coughing, wheezing, reduced lung capacity and other pulmonary abnormalities.

Approximately 40,000 people were either first responders to the disaster or were involved in the subsequent search for survivors and remains, and the site cleanup that followed. Virtually all of them were exposed to caustic dust and toxic pollutants in the process. There is concern in the medical community that the continuing symptoms of lung-related disease or injury could lead to development of malignancies such as mesothelioma, the lethal lung cancer directly connected to asbestos exposure.

In order to monitor World Trade Center related health problems the WTC Worker and Volunteer Medical Screening Program was established by the State of New York, OSHA and several New York are medical institutions. According to their data, “Of 9,442 responders examined between July 2002 and April 2004, 69% reported new or worsened respiratory symptoms while performing WTC work. Symptoms persisted to the time of examination in 59% of these workers.” – Environmental Health Perspectives, December 2006.

That is an extremely high percentage of continuing symptoms among a large group of WTC responders. Long term effects of the assortment of respiratory afflictions that persist for these tens of thousands of individuals are unknown. Also not known is how many New Yorkers who suffered exposure from the dust generated by the wreckage have yet to come forward with evidence of the many diseases that can be caused by toxic inhalants. What is known is that cancer such as mesothelioma can take decades to develop after the victim’s initial exposure to lung pollutants.
There are groups of WTC respiratory victims who have begun to petition the government for some sort of support in the cases of those who have been incapacitated by World Trade Center diseases. Support groups are active in the New York area, and some victims have already made the journey to Washington seeking federal relief.

The legal rights of those who exposed themselves to potentially lethal air pollutants remain to be established. However if you feel your health has been impacted by pollutants from the World Trade Center wreckage, consult an attorney to learn what the latest developments are in this growing public health controversy.

Those clouds of dust that enveloped thousands of New Yorkers who were near the World Trade Center’s destruction and who participated in the rescue efforts may be another large group of victims exposed to the cancerous effects of asbestos. Mesothelioma is a deadly form of lung cancer that is caused by exposure to asbestos, usually in the form of dust or tiny fibers that get into the respiratory system.

There was an enormous amount of asbestos in the debris left by the 9/11 disaster; moreover, it has become evident that the dust raised on 9/11 and during subsequent rescue and cleanup efforts was contaminated with asbestos. One citizen who participated in rescue efforts for 48 hours after the towers fell saved the shirt that he was wearing throughout that period. In April of 2006 the New York Post reported that when the shirt’s fabric was tested, it was found to contain 93,000 times the amount of asbestos normally found in American cities.

In April of 2007, the federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported that 62% of those caught in the dust cloud created on 9/11 are now incurring respiratory problems. 46% of those merely living in the area are showing similar symptoms. It is clear that the airborne debris created by the destruction on 9/11 has had health impacts on thousands of people. It is also clear that asbestos was a component of that dust.

Mesothelioma often takes decades to develop after the victim’s exposure to asbestos. However studies done on the first responders to the towers’ collapse show an overwhelming pattern of respiratory difficulties. There have been some cases that have already become the fatal impact of asbestos exposure – mesothelioma.

If you had any involvement with 9/11 rescue or cleanup efforts live in the area and you are suffering from respiratory problems, get a thorough physical workup from your doctor and contact an attorney about compensation for this deadly exposure.