Firefighter’s Daughter Highlights Cancers Still Plaguing 9/11 Victims and First Responders: It Will ‘Outnumber the Number of People Who Died on 9/11’
Fox News’ Jon Scott highlighted the widespread impact of cancers and illness related to the Sept. 11 attacks on Saturday, along with 9/11 victims’ attorney James Steiner and Bridget Gormley, the daughter of a 9/11 firefighter who passed away from cancer.
“We were the lucky ones right? My father came home,” Gormley told Scott. “But 17 years later, the cloud loomed over his shoulder and he was diagnosed with cancer in December 2016.”
Scott responded, “And there are thousands of firefighters, roughly 70% of those who worked on the pile who have been diagnosed with some kind of cancer.”
“Not just firemen too, but everybody who lived down here — students, residents — all coming down with cancer now. It just takes a long time to develop, 15 years, so now we’re seeing a boom in cancers. And unfortunately, we’re going to outnumber the number of people who died on 9/11.”
According to CNBC and a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cancer cases and other 9/11-related illnesses have surged in recent years for first responders and survivors.
Of the 104,223 victims and responders enrolled in the federal World Trade Center Health Program, 58% contracted at least one 9/11-related illness as of last year. Additionally, cancers related to 9/11 increased by more than 1,000% from 1,870 confirmed cases in 2013 to 20,612 cases in 2020.
Steiner then chimed in to note that many residents and employees in lower Manhattan prematurely believed the air was safe.
“But the survivors, the office workers, the students, the teachers, the residents of lower Manhattan, who all returned to the area when they believed the EPA when it said the air was safe, these are the people who are now being diagnosed with these illnesses,” he said.
“9/11 didn’t end on 9/11,” Steiner continued. “Here we are on the 20th year to the day where we have people being diagnosed with cancer every single day. And it’s not just cancers, it’s insidious pulmonary diseases, respiratory illnesses that are running rampant in the 9/11 community.”
After Scott noted that many people think the Sept. 11 victim fund was closed, Steiner said it has not been closed due to a deadline extension.
“That is a big misunderstanding. There was originally a deadline that was circulating in the news, July 29. But this deadline only applied to a number of people. The truth is the funds have been extended through the year 2090 for both the World Trade Center Health Program and the Victim Compensation Fund.”
The July 29 deadline applied to individuals who either became sick or passed away due to 9/11 prior to that date and had not yet registered; anyone who becomes sick or passes away due to a 9/11-related condition after July 29 has a two-year window after their condition is certified by the WTC Health Program to register.
Watch above, via Fox News.
