Several studies have directly linked the survival of many rescuers and survivors of the September 11, 2001, attacks to cancer and clouds of dust and toxic particles from the wreckage of the World Trade Center towers.
Eighteen years after the tragic accident, New York City continues to count the victims of the tragedy. Hundreds of survivors died of cancer - especially lung cancer - and other serious illnesses caused by the dust cloud that covered the weeks of Manhattan, unleashing toxic chemicals. And carcinogenic.
While it is difficult to ascertain whether there is a direct link between the attacks and cancer survivors, studies have warned since 2011 that rescuers who survived the disaster are more likely to develop this malignant disease, as concluded in a study published in The Lancet. Competent medical.
Since 2012, the US government has added about 50 new cancers to the World Trade Center health program, which was created after the attacks to provide health coverage for survivors and rescuers.
"We have to admit that there are victims other than those who died on September 11," Joanna Reisman's wife, a firefighter who took part in rescue operations and died in 2014 of brain cancer, told the New York Times during the 18th anniversary of the attacks.
The paper cited other cases, such as Jacqueline Viberie, who was only two streets away from the site of the attack and who developed a type of cancer called metastatic cancer, and 37-year-old Richard Vahrer, who worked in the Manhattan Geographic Survey between two years ago. 2001 and 2003, which developed colon cancer that usually affects older people.
The World Trade Center's health program revealed in June that about 13,300 survivors of the attacks had at least one cancer, while 732 others had already died from the malignant disease.
At the end of July, US President Donald Trump passed a law that would allow the federal compensation fund to be extended from 2020 to 2090.
The fund will be replenished after its $ 7.3 billion budget is exhausted by $ 240,000 per patient and $ 682,000 per dead person.
Activists and victims have regarded this decision as an important moral victory for their struggle for nearly two decades to gain official recognition of the long-term medical consequences of the attacks.
Commenting on what awaited the families of victims of the negative health effects of the bombings, television star John Stewart, who supports their demands in an influential speech to lawmakers in Congress: "That day rescuers responded to the distress calls in less than five seconds. "After 18 years, it is time for you to do your job properly."