More than 23 years after the collapse of twin towers, using the lower Manhattan in dust and toxic debris, the number of people diagnosed with diseases linked to 9/11 still increases.
Since 2011, the main resource for people exposed to smoke has been the World Trade Center health program, which covers the treatment of cancer, asthma and post-traumatic stress disorder, among other health conditions.
Out of around 132,000 people Registered on the program In December, 64% have at least one condition linked to September 11. Cancer is the most common, affecting more than 40,000 members. Some people join the program after a disease that has developed, while others join to receive annual projections that could detect diseases in the future.
The fate of the program has been seen in the past 10 weeks when the Trump administration had dismissed and re -hidden certain staff members, to update them last month, according to lawyers and defenders of people with exhibitions linked to 9/11. They added that the endowment cuts made the registration of members more difficult or confirm that their treatment is covered by federal funding.
“These cuts will potentially delay the treatment, delay the diagnosis and early detection of their cancers, and this will cost lives,” said Todd Cleckley, a specialized nurse at Barasch & McGarry, a law firm representing the speakers and the survivors of September 11.
“The health program has already worked on a very thin staff margin,” he added. “We only start to see what these negative impacts will be.”
Sixteen of the staff of the program were swept away by the Trump administration Probation workers shooting in February. The administration restored the positions about a week later, according to the uproar of the two Republicans And Democrats at the Congress.
Then at the end of March, the Ministry of Health and Social Services announced that it linked around 20,000 federal employees. These layoffs again included 16 staff members of the World Trade Center Health Program, as well as the program director, according to lawyers and defenders. The director was reinstated on April 5 after More bipartite oppositionthey said, but staff members have not been.
HHS layoffs were part of a massive restructuring that emptied the agency responsible for the World Trade Center program, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (Niosh). In addition to the 16 staff members, the HHS dismissed other employees of the Institute responsible for certifying that patients related to 9/11 patients were eligible for federal funding, lawyers and defenders said.
“They were not on the pay of the World Trade Center program, but they did essential things to the functionality of the program,” said Benjamin Chevat, executive director of September 11, Watch, a non -profit group that helps to ensure that people have access to program services.
Lawyers and defenders plan to visit Capitol Hill on Tuesday to ask the legislators to restore staff members. HHS did not respond to a request for comments.
New York mayor Eric Adams said his office contacted the federal government “on the restoration of these important resources”.
“New York City is dedicated to providing quality health care to the heroes who responded on September 11 and the most tragic day survivors in America’s history,” Adams said in a statement. “Our partnership with the federal government to provide these services is essential, offering access to rescue treatment and time sensitive for each firefighter, police, volunteer and New York every day who remember that day, and remember what it took to rebuild the next morning.”
Before the endowment cuts, the speakers of September 11 and the people who lived, worked or attended school services or by day in the disaster area could apply to join the program and generally be accepted in a few weeks. But Chevat said no one has been scored since April 1. The program Generally is around 200 people per monthon average.
Michael Barasch, partner of Barasch & McGarry, said that he still submits requests on behalf of his customers, but “they do not hear the health program, so we do not know if or when they get an appointment.”
The members of the program receive annual projections in certified health clinics, which are widely concentrated in the New York region. There, the doctors assess people to A crowd of mental and physical diseases With known links with September 11. If a doctor determines that there is a link, the clinic submits documents to federal employees, which must certify that the State is eligible for funding before patients can be treated at no cost. More than 8,200 cancer diagnostics were certified last year.
New certifications have not been issued since the beginning of April, shortly after HHS announced that it dismantled Niosh, said Chevat.
Delays could have disastrous consequences for people exposed to dust and toxic debris, lawyers and defenders said. Many cancers – once identified – must be treated immediately.
“You will never hear me say something inflammatory just to make a title, but it is a fact: people will die because of these decisions,” said Barasch.
The collapse of twin towers has released carcinogenic chemicals such as asbestos, benzene and dioxins that have persisted in the air for days at weeks. A 10 years have found a high risk of leukemia and prostate and thyroid cancer in rescue and recovery workers who responded to the disaster. Other cancers, such as lung cancer and mesothelioma, can develop decades after the exhibition to asbestosSo future diagnoses are expected.
“We were breathing in glass and asbestos and everything you could imagine,” said Michael O’Connell, who helped research and rescue operations as a firefighter at the start of his career after September 11. “We slept there, we ate there, we bled there. We did not leave him. We were in this area for almost nine months. ”
About six years later, O’Connell received a diagnosis of a rare inflammatory disease called sarcoidosis which caused debilitating pain in its joints and its skin. He received treatment through the World Trade Center Health Program, which he attributes for having helped him manage his symptoms. The idea that new members may not be able to register or receive treatment is “deeply disturbing,” he said.
If Niosh employees are not reintegrated, said lawyers and defenders, hospitals may not be reimbursed for chemotherapy or surgeries and can possibly cease to offer them to patients. Barasch said he had already received calls from worried customers to know if they could continue to get a chemo.
“” It is a bureaucratic cruelty, “he said.” They try to save money, which is good, but don’t do it on the back of the community of September 11. ”
Mariama James, a resident of Lower Manhattan who was pregnant with her third child during September 11, said she was waiting to see if the program will cover treatment for her sleep apnea. She now expects this process to be delayed.
“How are they going to get a new covered medication if Niosh doctors have been dismissed?” James said. “I will wait until this medication.”
The World Trade Center health program was already vulnerable before layoffs due to budgetary constraints, added Barasch. In December, the congress chose not to include a long -term funding set for the program as part of a bipartite expenditure agreement. Several legislators provide that the budget deficit could force the program to Close registrations or ladder treatment For current members from October 2028. A bipartite bill Presented in the Senate in February calls for more funding available until the program expired in 2090.
In addition to lobbying so that the staff of the program are rehired, lawyers and defenders will ask the legislators on Tuesday to support the bill.