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9/11 WTC Responders Have Threefold Higher Risk Of Lung Cancer
- October 15, 2025
- Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter
Emergency responders to the World Trade Center collapse on 9/11 have a nearly tripled risk of lung cancer, a new study says.
The toxic dust and fumes that lingered over Ground Zero likely boosted lung cancer rates among rescue workers, researchers reported this month in JAMA Network Open.
“We discovered that responders with more severe exposures to WTC dust had up to 2.9 times greater risk of developing lung cancer compared to minimally exposed responders working on the pile who reported low dust exposure or used personal protective equipment (PPE),” lead researcher Sean Clouston said in a news release. He’s an epidemiologist and director of public health research at Stony Brook University in Stony Brook, N.Y.
For the study, researchers tracked more than 12,000 WTC responders, among whom 118 lung cancer cases were diagnosed between July 2012 and December 2023.
All participants filled out a detailed questionnaire that included time spent at Ground Zero, their exposure to dust and odors, and their use of protective equipment.
Not all exposures occurred in the first horrifying days and hours following the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, researchers said.
Many responders spent months digging through Ground Zero, regularly churning up clouds of toxins as they recovered bodies and cleared away debris, researchers said in background notes.
Those most directly exposed to the airborne dust and fumes from the WTC rubble were 2.9 times more likely to develop lung cancer, the study found.
Those moderately exposed to dust and fumes had an 86% increased risk.
The research team said this appears to be the first published study to link WTC toxic exposures to later lung cancer cases.
“Previous studies did not identify any such link between lung cancer and WTC responders because of the short latency of exposures and low smoking rates in WTC responder populations,” researcher Dr. Paolo Boffetta, associate director for population sciences in the Stony Brook Cancer Center, said in a news release.
Researchers plan to continue tracking the health of first responders. They also aim to improve their measures of the specific toxins to which the emergency personnel were exposed at Ground Zero.
“This study establishes a need to begin to understand which specific carcinogens found at WTC sites might have increased the risk of lung cancer,” the team concluded.
More information
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on 9/11 exposures.
SOURCES: Stony Brook University, news release, Oct. 9, 2025; JAMA Network Open, Oct. 9, 2025
