9/11 Health Toll Still Unknown

AMANDA GARDNER

It was a disaster that defied all imagination.

And now, more than five years after two jetliners plunged into New York City’s twin towers on Sept. 11, 2001, there is much experts don’t know and may never know about the health consequences of that unforgettable day.

“The real issue is the uncertainty of what we don’t know,” said Dr. Len Horovitz, a pulmonary specialist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. “And when you look at what we do know, the question arises as to whether we’re looking at tip of the iceberg or the iceberg itself.”

The disaster has been associated with a prolonged hacking known as “World Trade Center Cough” and with sarcoidosis, a disease that causes inflammation and scarring in the lungs.

Just this week, the New York City Chief Medical Examiner added the name of Felicia Dunn-Jones to the list of attack victims. Dunn-Jones, a 42-year-old attorney at the time of the attacks, died of sarcoidosis five months after the attacks. This marked the first time the city had officially linked a 9/11 death to the toxic plume.

According to a perspective piece in the May 31 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, some responders have already received compensation and litigation is ongoing for thousands of people who allegedly fell ill after inhaling World Trade Center dust.