NEARLY six thousand people have died from cancer caused by toxins in the air after 9/11 in the 25 years since the terrorist attack.
Cancer cases among survivors continue to increase, and new data shows more than double the 2,753 people killed in the attack have died from related illnesses.
Over 57,000 cancer cases have been documented from people who were around Ground Zero on September 11, 2001, according to data reviewed by the New York Post.
Overall, 9,677 survivors of the attacks and first responders who worked the scene have died from illnesses tied to the fateful day as of July 31, according to the September 11 Victim Compensation Fund.
The most common cancer among those around Ground Zero is non-melanoma skin cancer, with over 18,000 reported cases.
The second most common disease is prostate cancer, with over 13,000 cases. And third is female breast cancer, with 4,830 cases.
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Other common cancers reported include melanoma of the skin, lymphoma, thyroid, kidney, lung, bladder and leukemia.
Some cases of rarer cancers have also been reported, with nearly 600 cases of neuroendocrine cancers, which are uncommon tumors found typically in the lungs, pancreas, bowel or adrenal glands.
Breast cancer among men has also surged, Michael Barasch, a lawyer whose firm represents 50,000 cases involving 9/11 illnesses, told The Post.
“Only one and a half percent of all breast cancer [cases] are male. We should see about five men with male breast cancer – my law firm alone represents 100,” he said.
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Barasch added his firm “loses two clients to cancer every day.”
The lawyer, whose office is located just three blocks from the Twin Towers, was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2018 and is still under “active surveillance” of the disease.
Barasch said he has also lost members of his staff, including a 49-year-old paralegal who died from kidney cancer in 2020 and a 47-year-old secretary who died of breast cancer in 2014.
New data revealed that first responders and people who worked or lived near the Twin Towers are 123 times more likely to have thyroid cancer, and 119 times more likely to have melanoma.
Those in the area, including people who lived close, went to school nearby, worked in one of the many neighboring buildings, or rushed to look for survivors, were exposed to toxic dust and smoke.
“The dust cloud engulfed highly populated areas of southern Manhattan and Brooklyn and entered offices, schools, and residential buildings,” the CDC said.
“People were exposed both indoors and outside.”
After the towers fell, people were worried about breathing in asbestos, fiberglass, human tissue and pulverized bones, and the smell of smoke lingered for months as underground fires raged on for around 100 days.
The cloud of toxic dust also contained carcinogenic compounds, such as mercury, lead and cadmium from burning plastics, office materials and jet fuel.
On Tuesday, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani released more than 170,000 documents that indicate previous city leaders knew about the toxins.
“These are documents that show what the city knew about the toxic air around Ground Zero, when they knew it, and how they acted to limit liability,” the mayor said.
The documents were kept from the public for over two decades, and appear to support the notion that New Yorkers were told they could return to Ground Zero before it was safe.
There have been other health conditions tied to survivors and first responders, including gastroesophageal reflux disease, asthma, major depressive disorder, chronic respiratory disorder and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Dr Michael Crane, the medical director of the World Trade Center Health Program Clinical Center of Excellence at Mount Sinai, said the program is on high alert for all types of cancers.
“Since we know all cancers are increased [among members] every time we do a monitoring visit, our eyes are looking for all cancers,” he told The Post.
“One we’re enormously concerned about is melanoma,” he explained, adding it is “much more deadly” than the common basal skin cancer.
“Then, you have prostate cancer. We do believe that it has an increased frequency because of the exposure.”
Crane said that the true cancer count for those affected by 9/11 could be higher than what’s recorded as thousands of people never enrolled in the World Trade Center Health Program.
Around 400,000 people were “significantly exposed” to the toxic air at Ground Zero, he said.
From people in “the apartment buildings with the windows open … and kids crawling around on the floor,” there are people who might not realize they were exposed to dangerous chemicals, he said.
“Those children are now in their 20s and remain largely unstudied,” Crane said.
“What’s going to happen with them?”
The brother of detective Luis Alvarez, who died years after 9/11 from a related illness, told The Sun in 2021 that “people will continue to get sick” in the years after the tragedy.
Luis died in 2019 at the age of 53, just over two weeks after his activism led to the passing of a bill in Congress extending the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund permanently.
He was one of the many first responders who went to Ground Zero and took part in rescue missions after the attacks, and was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer 15 years after 9/11.
Phil Alvarez, a former police officer and the Director of Outreach and Education for VCF told The Sun that it was difficult watching his little brother go from a strong, bomb squad detective to a “bag of bones” after undergoing chemo sessions, procedures and surgeries.
“Human beings are not supposed to breathe in the toxins that were down on Ground Zero,” Phil said.
“If you took a pinch of it, and put it in a bottle and put a stopper on that bottle, you gotta put the skull and the crossbones on it because it’s poison.
“The people in Manhattan were covered in it. Breathing it. It was blowing down the streets for months and months.
“People are going to continue unfortunately to get sick.”
