9/11 Committee Recommends Mesothelioma Coverage
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9/11 Committee Recommends Mesothelioma Coverage

ByAlex Strauss

Firefighters and first responders at risk ofmesothelioma because of 9/11 may finally be getting some help from the federal government. The World Trade Center Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee has added a list of cancers – including mesothelioma – to the list of illnesses they feel should be covered by the Zadroga Act.  Passed by Congress in 2010, the Zadroga Act provides $4.3 billion to monitor, treat and compensate people affected by the 9/11 attacks. Although cancer was not on the original list of illnesses covered by the act, a number of scientific studies on emerging health effects convinced the Advisory Committee that it should be.  Even before first responders began getting sick, a Mount Sinai School of Medicine analysis of…

Mesothelioma Risk Still Exists After 9/11
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Mesothelioma Risk Still Exists After 9/11

ByAlex Strauss

A decade after the attack on the World Trade Centers, health officials are bracing for latent health effects such as mesothelioma among the tens of thousands of people exposed to toxic dust at the scene. The collapse of the World Trade Centers in 2001 released huge clouds of dust and spread high levels of airborne pollutants across Manhattan and part of Brooklyn, New York.  Asbestos fibers, which causes mesothelioma, was one of the pollutants released.  Malignant mesothelioma is a disease in which a cancer grows on the mesothelium, the membrane that forms the lining of several body cavities. An estimated 60,000 to 70,000 responders suffered the most concentrated exposure, but thousands of other people who were just in the area at the…

9/11 Firefighters Could Get Help for Mesothelioma
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9/11 Firefighters Could Get Help for Mesothelioma

ByAlex Strauss

New York Firefighters who develop mesotheliomaand other cancers in the wake of the 9/11 attacks may be a step closer to receiving federal health benefits to cover their illnesses, thanks to a new study. A decade after the World Trade Center bombings, the study has found that firefighters who responded are 19 percent more likely to get cancer of all types than the general population.  The study published this week in The Lancet is the first to look specifically at cancer rates among those exposed to the toxic dust and smoke. An earlier study conducted at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and published in Environmental Health Perspectives used air analysis to confirm that the air in and around the site was…