The scale of 9/11’s health impacts, visualized 25 years later
Twenty-five years after the 9/11 attacks, it’s the first scenes that still loom large in many Americans’ memories. The moments of impact. The clouds of smoke. The sight of survivors holding cloths to their mouths.
Those early moments have ballooned into long-term health issues for countless survivors and for those who lived in New York during the time of the attacks.
On Tuesday, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced that the city released documents detailing how officials misled residents about air quality following the attacks.
“Close to 25 years later, more people have died from 9/11-related illnesses than were killed on the day itself,” Mamdani said on Sept. 8. “People got sick because the leaders they trusted lied and told them they were safe to breathe in toxic air.”
When the two planes collided with the Twin Towers, massive clouds of dust filled the air, leaving hundreds of city blocks covered with ash and debris and depositing harmful chemicals that included asbestos, silica, metals, concrete and glass. Further by-products resulted from the fires that continued to flare up months later at Ground Zero.
All these years later, that toxic air continues to be linked to illness and new deaths.
On Sept. 11, 343 New York City Fire Department members died. More than 15,000, including firefighters, EMS providers, and civilian personnel, both active and retired, were exposed to dust, particulates, gases, chemicals and fibers at the World Trade Center site in the 10 months after the attacks.
Other areas across lower Manhattan experienced levels of asbestos and other contaminants, sometimes above acceptable levels, after 9/11, the new documents revealed.
Video above: Lt. James Brosi, president of FDNY Uniformed Fire Officers Association, speaks after new documents released
According to the 9/11 Memorial, 49,000 people have been diagnosed with cancers related to the World Trade Center — a list that includes blood, digestive, ovarian and lung cancers and mesothelioma, among others. At least 140,000 people have enrolled in the World Trade Center Health Program, which monitors and treats related conditions. But more people are eligible for assistance.
In total, the CDC estimates that 400,000 people were exposed to toxic contaminants, the risk of physical injury, and “physically and emotionally stressful conditions” in the days, weeks and months following the attacks.
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This year, for the first time, the 9/11 commemoration ceremony at Ground Zero will include a seventh moment of silence to remember the thousands of people who have died from diseases linked to the attacks in recognition of that magnitude.
As the years pass, there are almost too many figures associated with 9/11 to count. Perhaps one of the most heartbreaking is the percentage of Americans who knew someone who was hurt or killed during the attacks: 20%.
