Since last September, when the seventeenth anniversary of the World Trade Center terrorist attacks was acknowledged, nearly 40 people have succumbed to the ravaging effects of 9/11 related illnesses.

If the death rate from these 9/11 related illnesses was regular and consistent, that would mean about 2-3 people a week are still losing their lives at the hands of terrorists.

According to an article by the New York Daily News in late December 2018, reality is more complicated. John Feal, a 9/11 survivor advocate, told the New York Daily News that a week or two can go by with no loss. Then, said Feal, 4-6 people seem to die in rapid sequence within the same week.

Feal has the depressing job of running the numbers. He says that from Sept. 11, 2017 to Sept. 11, 2018, there were 163 deaths from 9/11 related illnesses. In terms of loss, this was the biggest year aside from those that actually died on the day of the attacks themselves.

If the numbers of people suffering and dying from 9/11 related illnesses continue at the rate seen since this past anniversary, Feal believes that the previous record will be matched or even exceeded, a scenario which he told the Daily News he finds heart wrenching.

What are 9/11 Related Illnesses?

For the most part, 9/11 related illnesses are various types of cancer. There are now 70 different types of cancer that have been linked to the exposure to toxic fumes and dust generated when the passenger planes hit the two towers and they collapsed. These types of cancer include the following:

• Lung cancer, Mesothelioma
• Prostate cancer, Ovarian cancer
• Brain, Head, Neck, Nasal, Mouth Cancer
• Esophagus, Stomach, Colon Cancer
• Non-melanoma and Melanoma Skin Cancer
• Leukemia
• Multiple Myeloma
• Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma
• Breast cancer
• Thyroid Cancer
• Kidney, Bladder Cancer
• Bone Cancer
• Liver Cancer

In addition to the 90,000 first responders that showed up to help at Ground Zero, the New York Daily News reported that at least 400,000 people that either lived, worked, or attended school in lower Manhattan at the time of the attacks and may have been exposed to toxins.

Of this latter number, cancers have been prevalent, but so have other 9/11 related illnesses such as asthmatic conditions and other breathing issues which can be chronic or episodically acute.

The 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund

The $7.3 billion 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund (VCF) has seen an unusual uptick in activity corresponding with the increase in deaths, according to the Daily News.

Counting from the September 2018 anniversary of the attacks to the end of November, 3,000 people have enrolled in the Fund to help offset the financial costs of medical treatment and living expenses related to 9/11 illnesses.

The VCF is in critical need, according to Feal, of ongoing congressional support for funding beyond the year 2020. At this time, funds are only guaranteed up until that time.

It is expected that early in 2019, payments extended to victims for certain conditions will have to be amended to smaller amounts to conserve money in the Fund until further funding is guaranteed.