According to The Post, more than 2,500 Ground Zero rescuers and responders have been diagnosed with cancer, and a growing number are seeking compensation for their illnesses.
The number had skyrocketed to 1,140 cancer cases reported last year and in its latest tally, the World Trade Center Health Program at Mount Sinai Hospital counts 1,655 responders with cancer among the 37,000 cops, hard hats, sanitation workers, other city employees and volunteers it monitors.
The tragic total rises to 2,518 when firefighters and EMTs were accounted for. The FDNY had counted 863 members with cancer certified for 9/11-related treatment.
A retired FDNY captain, 63, who toiled non-stop at Ground Zero for a week after 9/11, and months in all, recently received a $1.5 million award from the federal 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund for lung disease and inoperable pancreatic cancer.
So far, 115 cancer claimants have been awarded a total $50.5 million, in sums from $400,000 to $4.1 million. The VCF could not say how many cancer claimants have died.
Many more sufferers or their next of kin are expected to file by the Oct. 12 deadline for cancer claims.
WTC epidemiologists say studies show that 9/11 workers have gotten certain cancers at a significantly higher rate than expected in the normal population — prostate, thyroid, leukemia and multiple myeloma.
Read the article here.
