“Working with first responders gives you a sense of the tremendous amount of sacrifice that patients or people do. When people act heroically, we are thankful, but we don’t realize that when people are doing those things, they are losing something.”― Dr. Benjamin Luft, director of the World Trade Center Health Program at Stony Brook University. The above quote is from an article written by Cindy Mizaku for The Statesman. The last words of…

When a WTC-related death among fellow FDNY firefighters follows another death in quick succession, the sense of loss is all the more devastating. For those who were stricken with a terminal illness related to the 9/11 WTC terrorist attacks during and after September 11, 2001, this sense of loss was magnified three-fold earlier this month. Sadly, as reported by Thomas Tracy in the New York Daily News, three FDNY firefighters who had been afflicted…

As if the aftermath of 9/11 could not possibly get worse – it has. The 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund (VCF), which compensates responders and survivors with 9/11-related cancers, is running out of money. All VCF awards are now being slashed by 50% – 70%. This will continue and likely get even worse – unless Congress restores additional funding.   The Victim Compensation Fund – established in 2011 with a budget capped at $7.375 billion – now…

When the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center (WTC) collapsed on September 11, 2001, 24,000 gallons of jet fuel burned fires on the pile for almost 100 days. The debris and dust in the air around Ground Zero contained over 2,500 contaminants that never should have been inhaled. Those contaminants contained glass, mercury, lead, concrete dust, carpet fibers, pulverized fiberglass, and even asbestos. During the rescue mission, recovery workers and cleanup teams were exposed…