MIAMI — Many of the first responders who worked at the three 9/11 sites in Manhattan, Arlington, and Shanksville -- where 2,977 people died on Sept. 11, 2001 -- have suffered respiratory illnesses, cancers, and mental health conditions, according to the World Trade Center Health Program, which aims to serve over 125,000 responders and survivors.
William Giammarino, a former New York Police Department emergency unit officer who worked at Ground Zero for about five months, was diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD. He underwent surgery for a double-lung transplant on Sept. 9, 2024, and took his first unassisted, clear breath with his new lungs on Sept. 11, 2024.
“I started with high blood pressure, diabetes, I don’t know if all of that is connected with it. I started with the breathing and inhalers and stuff like that, and it just progressed over the years,” Giammarino said during a news conference at the North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset.
The majority of the respiratory illnesses have been chronic rhinosinusitis, the majority of the cancers have been non-melanoma skin and prostate, and the mental health conditions have been mostly anxiety and major depressive disorders, according to WTC Health Program data.
“Over 50,000 cancers have been linked to exposures at Ground Zero, an increase of 143% over the past five years,” said Dr. Jacqueline Moline, director of Northwell’s Queens WTC Health Program.
In Florida, the WTC Health program’s membership as of March 31 was 9,507, including 6,944 responders and 2,563 survivors.
“There are life-threatening diseases being treated by our WTC program,” Moline said. “They can be stable for many years and then suddenly deteriorate — much like Mr. Giammarino. It’s the long tail of 9/11 — long-term impacts are now happening. We need to remain vigilant for these heroes.”
On X, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wrote he and President Donald Trump, who visited the Pentagon on Thursday, “will ensure” the WTC Health program “continues to serve our 9/11 heroes-firefighters, police, cleanup crews, survivors, and Pentagon workers. We will never forget.”
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