Research came out from Cowan University regarding the continuous suffering of the 9/11 responders after 20 years. Many of them are currently facing serious health issues about the event.
At that time, there were over 91,000 responders exposed to various hazards during clean-up operations and recovery, with around 80,785 enrolling in the health program of World Trade Center, which was structured after the 9/11 attack.
Erin Smith, an Associate Professor at ECU and an expert in emergency and disaster response, showed her analysis of the health program participants and revealed that 3,439 are deceased, far greater than the number of people who died during the attack. They have found that 34 percent of the participants suffer from aerodigestive illness, Meanwhile, 15percent have mental health problems, and 30 percent have developed cancer.
In addition to these three illnesses, acute traumatic and musculoskeletal injuries have significantly increased six times since 2016.
A continuous battle
The continuous effects of the incident were evident, as 16,009 of the responders only availed the WTCHP in previous years (5 years). Based on the research, the responders who developed cancer went up to 185, such as leukemia over the past years. The prevalence of leukemia among the respondents has overtaken bladder and colon cancer, as stated by Professor Smith.
