Emergency responders to the World Trade Center collapse on Sept. 11, 2001, have a nearly tripled risk of lung cancer, a new study says.
The toxic dust and fumes that lingered over Ground Zero likely boosted lung cancer rates among rescue workers, researchers reported this month in JAMA Network Open.
"We discovered that responders with more severe exposures to WTC dust had up to 2.9 times greater risk of developing lung cancer compared to minimally exposed responders working on the pile who reported low dust exposure or used personal protective equipment," lead researcher Sean Clouston said in a news release. He's an epidemiologist and director of public health research at Stony Brook University in Stony Brook, N.Y.
For the study, researchers tracked more than 12,000 WTC responders, among whom 118 lung cancer cases were diagnosed between July 2012 and December 2023.
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