September 11, 2026
Seth Harrison/USA Today Network via Reuters Connect
The World Trade Center Health Program, which provides free medical care to Sept. 11 survivors, is attempting to reach young adults who may be unaware that their health issues are connected to 9/11. Above, Ground Zero in Manhattan on Sept. 12, 2001.
Thousands of police officers, firefighters, EMTs and others helped with the recovery efforts following the Sept. 11 attacks 25 years ago. For months, they dug through the rubble of the World Trade Center in New York City. The health impact of that work has been immense.
Research shows many first responders have developed long-term health consequences, including cancer and other physical and mental health conditions, as a result of toxic exposures and trauma.
MORE: Where were you on 9/11? Why our 'flashbulb' memories aren't as accurate as we believe
The World Trade Center Health Program, established by a 2011 law, provides and funds medical treatment for rescue, recovery and clean-up workers who helped in the aftermath of the attacks in New York, Washington and Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
But the health program also includes survivors who lived, worked or went to school near the World Trade Center, even if that has not been at the forefront of public consciousness, said Dr. Kristi Anderson, the program's chief medical officer.
People may "think that only people that were affected were the people who came to the rescue, so to speak, and we know that's not the case," Anderson said. "If you lived there and had to walk to your home through the dust for two, three, four months, of course you had an exposure. It may be different from the first responder, firefighter, police officer exposure, but it's still an exposure."
As many as 25,000 children were exposed to the dust, research indicates.
Anderson and other health program administrators are trying to enroll those children, now ages 25 to 46, who have physical and mental health conditions stemming from the terrorist attacks. But many of them may not have linked their health issues to 9/11.
These survivors may be eligible for the health program, administered through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which provides free monitoring and treatment for people who have conditions relating to 9/11. These conditions range widely from asthma to lung cancer to mental health issues.
"It would be one thing if government had stood alongside survivors and provided them with everything they needed at every step of the way, and yet we know that could not be further from what actually happened," New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani said at a news conference Tuesday. This week, his administration released more than 170,000 air quality reports and other documents relating to 9/11 that were found last year.
But no-cost, coordinated care through the World Trade Center Health Program has led to better outcomes for many people, Anderson said.
"Our cancer mortality rate is 35% lower than demographically similar individuals who are not in the program with cancer," Anderson said. "... The access to preventive services and cancer screenings and further diagnostic tests at no cost, the treatment at no cost — all of those things work together to improve health outcomes."
The program has 142,000 members, including about 17,000 in New Jersey and nearly 3,000 in Pennsylvania.
"But we know from census data that there were more people that were living and working in the area than have enrolled in the program so far," Anderson said.
Some of these people "may have developed a disease earlier in life that they didn't realize was attributable to their exposure and may have carried that disease into adulthood," she added. "We also see diseases like cancer, which have long latency periods that show up later in their adult life, but may be showing up in (people at a) younger (age) than the general population."
Many younger adults also may not understand that persistent anxiety, depression and other mental health issues are related to their 9/11 exposures, Anderson said.
"People in general can suppress trauma, can go about their business," Anderson said. "They're busy, and they don't think about it, and then decades later start having anxiety and depression — and even flashbacks — and not realize that those mental health issues are stemming from the trauma of 9/11."
The program is also enrolling younger adults in research about the long-term effects of exposure to the environmental toxins and trauma.
Dr. Leonardo Trasande, a medical researcher at NYU Langone Health, has conducted studies showing that children exposed to World Trade Center dust had much higher levels of "forever chemicals" and other toxins associated with increased risk of cancer as long as a decade out.
While it is good the federal government is now trying to enroll people in this age bracket in studies, "I would say it's a tad late," Trasande told the New York Times. "That might be a nice way to put it."
"I understand that people have said getting a youth research cohort together late may not get all the answers we want, and I don't argue with that," Anderson said. "But I do believe this is a noble effort to get some (answers), and it will also not only benefit these individuals as they get older, but may help us inform ways to do research … god forbid something like this happens to us again."
