9-11 Response Workers and Cancer Risk

Among rescue and recovery workers exposed to the dust, debris, and fumes following the World Trade Center terrorist attack, there was an increased incidence of prostate and thyroid cancers and multiple myeloma, although it is not clear how big a factor medical screening and non-WTC risk factors contributed to these increases, according to a study in the December 19 issue of JAMA. The authors did not find a statistically significant increased incidence for all cancer sites combined, and note that the findings on the three cancers that did increase should be viewed with caution for several reasons, including that they were based on a small number of cancers, multiple comparisons, and a relatively short follow-up time.

“The terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center (WTC) on September 11, 2001, claimed more than 2,700 lives and exposed hundreds of thousands of people to dust, debris, pulverized building materials, and potentially toxic emissions, resulting in short- and medium-term health effects,” according to background information in the article. The dust, smoke, and aerosols were complex mixtures of volatile chemicals and respirable particulate matter and contained known and suspected carcinogens. “The presence of carcinogenic agents raises the possibility that exposure to the WTC environment could eventually lead to cancers.”