Rescue and recovery workers exposed to
debris in the air from the 2001 attack on the World Trade Center in New York
are no more likely to develop cancer than from any other cases; But a closer
look at the records finds that three stand as exceptions: cancers of the
thyroid and prostate and a blood cancer called multiple myeloma.
Other people exposed to the dust have so far experienced no increased risk. The study was based off of the approximately 55,000 New York residents exposed to the dust after the towers fell. It is unclear why three of the cancers were caused and the other twenty were left alone; but any cancer rate increase raises the concern that exposures during the rescue and months-long cleanup operation may pose future risks, Stellman says, an epidemiologist at the New York City Department of Health and Columbia University.
People who worked amid the dust include first responders, cleanup crews, welders who cut up the tangled steel beams and barge and landfill workers who removed the rubble. By 2007 and 2008, this group of people showed a slightly increased risk of prostate cancer, a doubled risk of thyroid cancer and a nearly tripled risk of multiple myeloma when compared with the general population of New York.
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