New York (dpa) - US firefighters who first reached the World Trade
Center, which was attacked by terrorists a decade ago, are 19 per
cent more likely to have cancer than those not exposed to
cancer-causing materials at the site, the medical journal The Lancet
reported Friday.
The Lancet's special issue on the September 11, 2001 attacks
showed that a higher proportion of male firefighters at Ground Zero,
263 cases, have been diagnosed with cancer compared with 238 cases
expected in the general New York population.
For rescuers who were not directly exposed at Ground Zero, there
have been 135 diagnosed cases compared with 161 expected in the
general population, the study said.
All 9,853 firefighters involved in the study had good health
records during periods well before 9/11.
David Prezant, the chief medical officer of the New York Fire
Department and physician colleagues at the Albert Einstein College of
Medicine of Yeshiva University and Montefiore Medical Center in New
York took part in the study.
The study focused on cancer incidences and potential links seven
years after the attacks.
Hundreds of firefighters were the first to reach the site after
the 110-storey twin towers of the World Trade Center were hit by two
terrorist-hijacked commercial airplanes. More than 2,700 people were
killed - among them were 360 firefighters.
Prezant said in revealing the findings of the study that cancer
was "biologically plausible" with the first responders. Health
officials in New York have since 2001 not admitted the link to cancer
for those working at Ground Zero, saying that it would take decades
to prove.
"This is not an epidemic, but an increased risk (of cancer),"
Prezant said. He said firefighters who reached Ground Zero when the
towers were burning, should screen for tumors and take part in cancer
monitoring programmes.
The twin towers, built in the early 1970s, were known for use of
cancer-causing asbestos, a material widely used in construction in
the past.
The study said cancer types related to Ground Zero include
prostrate, melanoma, colon, non-Hodgkin lymphoma and lung.
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