New figures reveal that around 1,140 people have been certified to receive cancer treatment under the WTC Health Program. The program was designed to help the thousands of people who have worked or lived near the World Trade Center on 9/11 and have since been diagnosed with cancer.
According to CNN, these are the first figures from the health program was expanded to include 58 types of cancer, including mesothelioma, in September 2012. WTC Health Program was created as a result of the health Act and the James Zadroga 9/11 compensation, which was passed by Congress in December 2010.
the program provides medical services and compensation for first responders, volunteers, survivors and residents who worked near the 9/11 site. Many of these people were exposed to toxic chemicals, including exposure to asbestos while working at zero.
Program Benefits have been recently expanded to include stakeholders in the Pentagon attack and the site of Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where United Airlines Flight 93 crashed.
a CNN article recently highlighted the health consequences associated with zero work for a New York police officer named Reggie Hilaire. For 11 days, Hilaire helped to zero without the use of a protective mask. Then he was assigned to a Staten Island landfill where debris from the World Trade Center was dumped.
Hilarie was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 05. Shortly after, when Hilaire was 34 years old, he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a rare blood cancer that usually strikes the elderly and increased the plasma cells in the body to dangerous levels.
"They looked at my medical records ... cause and effect determined," said Hilaire in the CNN article. "After years saying," We do not know, we're not sure, they finally said, "Yes, you got it from there"
Read the full article. CNN now.
tags: asbestos, asbestos exposure, mesothelioma
