"Illnesses Thought To Be Linked to 9.11 WTC Attacks on the Rise" - Mara Gay
In the 16 years since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Sal Turturici has watched as friends he worked with at the World Trade Center site fell ill. Now Mr. Turturici is sick too, battling stage 4 neuroendocrine cancer that doctors believe could be linked to his service on an FDNY medical team at the site. Doctors are seeing more cancer among those exposed to toxic air around ground zero after the attacks. Michael Crane, MD, director of the WTC Health Program at Mount Sinai, who runs a treatment and monitoring center financed by the federally funded World Trade Center Health Program at Mount Sinai Health System, said the rate of 9/11-related cancers he sees has risen in recent years, to more than 15 new cases a week, up from about 10 a week two years ago. “It’s been building steadily,” Dr. Crane said in an interview. “I am very concerned.”
- Michael Crane, MD, MPH, Associate Professor, Environmental Medicine and Public Health, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Director, World Trade Center Health Program Clinical Center of Excellence, The Mount Sinai Hospital