NYC Fire Department Claims 9/11-Cancer Link

The Fire Department of New York City is preparing to release its own research that it contends proves that firefighters who responded to the attacks on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, are at increased risk for cancer, reports the New York Post.

These findings contradict the federal government’s research.

The research, to be published in early September in the medical journal The Lancet, shows an increase in blood cancers in the department’s 9/11 responders, sources told the newspaper.

"Before 9/11, the incidence of cancer with firefighters was significantly less than that of the general population and the incidence after 9/11 put firefighters equivalent to the general population," said one source.

A government report released in July concluded that there is no connection between cancer and the toxic stew that the attacks against the World Trade Center and the towers’ ensuing collapse spewed into the air. Based on this, the government decided to exclude cancer patients from receiving compensation from a $4.3 billion federal fund set up to help residents, workers, and responders affected by the attacks.

“It’s not shocking to me,” said retired NYPD Detective John Walcott, who was diagnosed in 2003 with a type of leukemia. “I’ve met more people who worked at ground zero with my type of cancer in the last eight years than I did at my doctor's office. I didn't need a study to know the numbers would be astronomical."