http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/evidence-mounting-9-11-first-responders-cancer-working-ground-zero-article-1.1024717
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Published: Tuesday, February 21, 2012, 4:00 AM
WARGA, CRAIG/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Joseph Zadroga fought for the bill that bears his son’s name. But will it cover first responders who fell ill with cancer?

The director of Mount Sinai Medical Center’s World Trade Center health program is preparing to publish a study that will show elevated risks of cancer among 9/11 rescue and recovery workers.

A leading authority on the illnesses suffered by Ground Zero responders, Dr. Philip Landrigan says that an analysis of 20,000 medical case histories revealed an incidence of cancer that is 14% higher than expected for a population of the same profile. The most common elevations were in prostate, thyroid and blood cancers.

Landrigan’s findings add to the evidence that the toll from service on or around The Pile, bad as that toll has been, will significantly worsen with time. Research by fire department doctors previously had found a 19% higher cancer rate among FDNY members who’d been at Ground Zero than among those who hadn’t.

It has been well-established that exposure to airborne toxins in the smoke and dust that shrouded Ground Zero produced respiratory, heart and gastrointestinal damage. And medical experts have feared from the start that cancers, which develop slowly, would emerge.