Number of cancer cases linked to September 11 attacks TRIPLES in less than three years with 5,400 people now suffering from 6,378 variations of the disease
THE number of cancer diagnoses among September 11 responders and others who lived near the site has tripled in less than three years.
More than 5400 Ground Zero responders have been diagnosed with 6378 separate cancers as of June 30 this year - triple the number of 1822 victims in January 2014.
World Trade Center Health Program medical director Dr Michael Crane the increase to 5441 people diagnosed had been alarming.
He said: “It’s been steady for at least the last year and a half — we’re seeing new people here being certified for cancer 10 to 15 times week. That’s every week."
About 50 types of cancer are believed to be related to the toxic smoke and dust of 9/11.
Veteran firefighter Ray Pfeifer, 58, was diagnosed with advanced kidney cancer in the years after the 2001 attacks.
Pfeifer said he believed he was one of the lucky ones, despite having undergone 11 surgeries and radiation for a brain tumour.
He said: "I'm a lucky guy, I've had 15 years with my kids after 9/11 and I'm still here with Stage 4 cancer."
Pfeifer had been golfing with friends when the planes hit the World Trade Center in 2001, with the fire fighter rushing to help.
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He spent nine days straight at the scene, sleeping on a rig as he worked to help clear the scene.
But he ultimately spent eight months at the scene after all 12 of his fellow Bravest, assigned to Ladder 35 on the Upper West Side, were killed when the towers collapsed.
In the years after the tragic event, Pfeifer brushed off often feeling out of breath until doctors found a baseball-sized tumour in 2009.
9/11 cancer deaths: Why have cancer rates gone up since September 11?
They dedicated days to shovelling away the tower debris and searching for September 11 survivors.
But now thousands of people who rushed to Ground Zero to help have been left diagnosed with various forms of cancer – types including cancers of the blood, breast cancer and those affecting the digestive system, to just name a few.
Government reports have suggested that those near the World Trade Centers were exposed to chemicals that were known carcinogens or cancer-causing agents.
More than 50 types of cancer are believed to be related to the toxic smoke and dust of September 11.
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center oncologist, Dr. Larry Norton, has even formerly come out and said there was “every reason to expect” that the debris could have been carcinogenic.
But it is not the only event that has seen a huge jump in cancer and other health implications.
In 1986, a reactor exploded at the nuclear power plant in Chernobyl in Ukraine, with radioactive materials released into the atmosphere.
More than 350,000 cleanup workers rushed to help with the World Health Organisation now finding a huge increase in thyroid cancer diagnoses of those who were young children at the time of the accident. A research group determined that there may have been up to 4000 more additional cancer deaths among the three highest exposed groups over their lifetime.
The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan at the end of World War Two also saw a huge increase in the rates of leukaemia and other forms of cancer. The cancer risk for Hiroshima survivors increased by 42 per cent.
Likewise, the Fukushima disaster that saw nuclear reactor meltdown after a tsunami saw a jump in cases of thyroid cancer.
To survive, he has had his kidney removed, hip, femur and knee replaced.
A photograph of Marcy Borders captured the world's attention with the image showing the bank clerk covered in white dust after the attacks.
Borders, who became known as the 'dust lady', died of stomach cancer that she blamed on dust inhaled during the attack.
Speaking to the Jersey Journal before her death, she said: "I'm saying to myself 'Did this thing ignite cancer cells in me?' I definitely believe it because I haven't had any illnesses.
"How do you go from being healthy to waking up the next day with cancer?";
The WTC Health Program monitors more than 48,000 cops, hardhats, volunteer firefighters and others who worked at Ground Zero in the aftermath of the devastating 9/11 attacks that brought the US to its knees.
The Fire Department of New York also has its own 9.11 health program with 16,000 members.
So far, at least 1140 have died.
The federal 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund paid out cash for the first time in 2013.
The city Health Department is expected to publish a new report on cancer among 9/11 workers and survivors in September.
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