FIFTEEN years have passed, and the agony goes on for those who survived the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US. More than 1000 people may have died from health problems linked to the attacks.
The latest official figures released by the World Trade Center Health Program reveal a sharp rise in the number of people diagnosed with cancers that have been linked to dust generated when New York’s Twin Towers collapsed.
To date, some 50,000 people have been certified sick as a probable consequence of the attacks and 1140 have died – which is more than a third of the 2977 deaths on 9/11 itself.
Respiratory and digestive disorders reached 32,291 as of 30 June 2016. But cancer cases are rising fastest, tripling from 1822 in January 2014 to 5441 in June 2016.
Some health professionals now predict that by 2020, more people will have died through fallout from the attacks than died on 9/11.
“It’s not based on hard numbers, but on the growing number of people who are going down with cancers,” says Ben Chevat, a spokesman for the support group 9/11 Health Watch.
This article appeared in print under the headline “9/11’s rising toll”