Cancer Claims More Than Double For Ground Zero Workers

August 4, 2014- The medical aftermath of 9/11 responders is again in the news.

Ahead of an October 12, 2014 filing deadline for 9/11 cancer sufferers, more than 2,500 first responders, or their next of kin, are seeking compensation for their illnesses in 2014. In 2013, the number of cases reported was 1,140.

In her recent article for the New York Post online, "2,500 Ground Zero Workers Have Cancer," Susan Edelman gives more details of the terrorist attack's grim toll.

Officials for the World Trade Center Health Program at Mount Sinai Hospital told The Post that its latest tally counts 1,655 responders with cancer among the 37,000 cops, hard hats, sanitation workers, other city employees and volunteers it monitors, and the tragic sum reaches 2,518 when firefighters and EMTs are added.

Separately, the FDNY, which has its own WTC health program, counts 863 members with cancers certified for 9/11-related treatment.

In her New York Post article, Edelman also writes of a 63-year old retired FDNY captain, who toiled non-stop at Ground Zero for a week after 9/11, and months in all, who recently received a $1.5 million award from the federal 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund (VCF) for lung disease and inoperable pancreatic cancer.

On 9/11, the FDNY captain commandeered a city bus and used it to close the Brooklyn Bridge so that he and the Ladder Co. 132 could race to the towers, where they joined the dig for victims.

“I knew that day that a lot of us would get sick,” the FDNY captain said at a hearing in May, The Post reports.

"I’m hoping they rush more cases like mine, where we’re not expected to last long," he said, quoted in The Post, who also reported that the man retired in 2008 after inoperable lung damage from the fires left him wheezing.

The 6'2" firefighter was a muscle-bound 240 pounds on 9/11. He now weighs 160 after chemotherapy and radiation.

“I was a very active guy. Now there’s not much I can do,” he tells The Post, adding that his three toddler grandkids give him joy, though he’s often too weak to play with them.

"I’m grateful for it," he said of his VCF award, which is mainly based on lost earnings but includes $250,000 for pain and suffering. "I just don’t understand why they’re making everyone wait two years."

The Post reports that VCF recipients get 10 percent immediately, with the rest due in 2016.

According to data compiled for The Post as of June 30, the VCF had received 1,145 claims listing cancer, many also with other ailments.

Of those, 881 claims for all cancer types were deemed eligible for compensation, with the rest under review. The vast majority are 9/11 workers, but they include 17 downtown residents and five visitors.

So far, The Post writes, 115 cancer claimants have been awarded a total $50.5 million, in sums from $400,000 to $4.1 million.

The Post reports that WTC epidemiologists say studies show that 9/11 workers have gotten certain cancers at a significantly higher rate than expected in the normal population — prostate, thyroid, leukemia and multiple myeloma.

Read the full NYPost.com post here.

Carnow Conibear and Associates is a demonstrated leader in the occupational and environmental health professions since 1975. To find out more, click here or call us at (800) 860-4486.