Reported cancer cases involving original 9/11 responders more than doubled over the past year, with many of the new patients seeking help for their treatment.
The New York Post reported Sunday said that the 2,518 total includes firefighters, emergency medical technicians, police officers, construction and sanitation workers along with other city employees and volunteer who responded to the scene. The total is a dramatic jump from 1,140 cases reported a year ago.
The tabloid reported that World Trade Center epidemiologists cited research that showed that 9/11 workers suffer from certain cancers at a much higher rate than expected in the normal population, such as leukemia, multiple myeloma, prostate and thyroid.
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The numbers are not surprising for some. In 2011, the British medical journal The Lancet reported that after studying the health reports of almost 10,000 New York City firefighters, that those who responded to 9/11 were 19 percent more likely to get cancer compared to those who did not,
reported NY1.
"What we can say is exposure to 9/11 increased the likelihood for their developing cancer," FDNY Chief Medical Officer Dr. David Prezant said then. "It was one of many factors, but it was a significant factor."
Mount Sinai Hospital's World Trade Center Health Program is monitoring 1,655 responders who have come down with cancer, with 37,000 overall in the program, the Post reported.
"The World Trade Center dust was a complex mix of chemicals," Dr. Philip Landrigan, chairman of the Department of Preventive Medicine at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine told NY1 back in 2011. "It was a real witch's cauldron, a soup of toxic material. The cement dust had a pH of between 10 and 11, which means that it would be like inhaling powdered Drano."
The Post reported that the federal 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund had received 1,145 claims listing cancer and other ailments as of June 30. Of that number, 881 claims were considered eligible for compensation while 115 with cancer claims have been awarded a total $50.5 million.
John Vobecky, who was visiting the 9/11 memorial in New York City with his family,
told WPIX-TV Sunday that he worries that the cancer number may continue to go up.
"I think in the next five or even 10 years things are going to come out that they didn't even know 10 years earlier," he told the television station.
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