After the towers fell, a toxic cloud swallowed Lower Manhattan. According to a report from CNN, that dust was no ordinary debris: pulverized concrete, jet-fuel byproducts and vaporized metals such as cadmium, lead and mercury coated streets, apartments and lungs.
The CDC estimates as many as 400,000 people were exposed—first responders and also residents, students and office workers who returned to contaminated buildings in Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn.
More people have now died from illnesses tied to that exposure than died in the collapses themselves. Among roughly 54,000 survivors in the World Trade Center Health Program, about half now have cancer—triple the figure from five years ago.
The CDC estimates as many as 400,000 people were exposed—first responders and also residents, students and office workers who returned to contaminated buildings in Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn.
More people have now died from illnesses tied to that exposure than died in the collapses themselves. Among roughly 54,000 survivors in the World Trade Center Health Program, about half now have cancer—triple the figure from five years ago.
“This is one of the largest man-made disasters in the history of United States,” said Dr. Alan Arslan, a cancer epidemiologist at NYU Langone Medical Center. “And it is also a disaster characterized by a very complex exposure to many, many potential carcinogens, including asbestos.”
Dr. Leigh Wilson, who directs a World Trade Center clinical center, said her program still sees about 120 new patients a month. Survivor enrollments now outpace first responders; roughly twice as many survivors as responders joined in 2024 and 2025.