Public Employee Press

WTC medical program director sees possible “third wave” of cancers hitting 9/11 workers

By GREGORY N. HEIRES

The head of the World Trade Center medical monitoring program says blood cell cancers may become a “third wave” of illnesses to strike 9/11 rescue and recovery workers.

Dr. Robin Herbert, co-director of the World Trade Center Medical Monitoring Program at Mount Sinai Hospital, said the program is now studying cases of workers with lymphatic and blood cell cancers. The program has screened 20,000 of the estimated 40,000 people who worked at Ground Zero.

Herbert’s comments came as reports of cancer deaths of rescue and recovery workers have been growing.

David Newman, an industrial hygienist at the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health, said that in the absence of a study it is premature to conclude definitively that the cancer deaths are attributable to work at Ground Zero.

But he said the latency period for blood cell cancers is at least five years, which suggests, according to some health experts, that reports of cancer-related deaths might become more common now.

He also said that the anecdotal evidence points to the need for rigorous monitoring.

In June the Public Employee Press reported on the death of Radio Repair Mechanic Glenford Pennington, 49, in August 2006 after a bout with lymphoma cancer. Pennington worked at Ground Zero on9/11 and returned to the area periodically for three months to clean radios and do other repairs for the Fire Dept.

More recently, Robert Williamson, 46, a retired New York Police Dept. street detective who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer after working at Ground Zero, died in May.

Detective Kevin Hawkins, 42, also died in May. His family and the police union attributed his death to kidney cancer that he developed after 9/11.

Herbert mentioned her concern about cancer cases in an audio interview on the Web site of the New England Journal of Medicine, which recently published an article on the health effects of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

“We’re worried about a third wave, which is the possibility of cancer down the road,” Herbert said in the interview. The “World Trade Center cough” constituted the first wave of 9/1l illnesses, and more serious chronic lung diseases, such as sarcoidosis, are the second wave.

“What worries us is that we know we have a handful of cases of multiple myeloma in very young individuals, and multiple myeloma … almost always presents later in life. That’s the kind of odd, unusual and troubling finding we’re seeing already.”

David Worby, the lead attorney representing 10,000 workers in a lawsuit against the city over its alleged failure to protect the health of rescue and recovery workers, says he has documented about 120 cases attributable to blood cell cancers, such as leukemia, lymphoma and multiple myeloma.

The study in the May 31 New England Journal of Medicine noted that Ground Zero dust samples revealed combustion-related carcinogens. Reponders “were exposed to inhaled carcinogens, but any associated increased risk for respiratory tract and most other cancers will not become apparent for decades,” the study said.