9/11 Legacy continues: Autoimmunity Rising in 9/11 Workers

Not a week goes by without us losing a 9/11 First Responder.  This may not be front page news anymore, but the legacy of that awful day continues to claim lives.  Read on:

- Each month spent working at World Trace Center site tied to 13% increased risk developing autoimmune disease later.

The list of ailments afflicting the World Trade Center first responders has grown to include systemic autoimmune diseases, a new study reported.


[...]


"The terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center (WTC) buildings and the subsequent building collapses and fires exposed rescue/recovery workers to aerosolized WTC dust, an amalgam of pulverized cement, glass fibers, silica, asbestos, lead, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, polychlorinated biphenyls, and polychlorinated furans and dioxins," they noted.

The result has been the development of various respiratory and other diseases including asthma, gastroesophageal reflux, and cancer in up to 70% of the exposed New York City fire department (FDNY) members, but the entire range of potential health effects is not yet known and may take decades to fully manifest.

The FDNY-WTC Health Program has been following almost 16,000 firefighters and emergency medical system responders who worked at the site during the 10 months of cleanup that followed the attack....

Read the rest here.

Never forget.