Thousands of people diagnosed with rare cancers qualify for the 9 11 victims compensation fund, which can help provide tax-free compensation for medical expenses and lost wages.

After 17 years, the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks are still clawing at and claiming lives. People who worked or lived near Ground Zero, which is defined as the Manhattan area below Canal Street, between Sept. 11, 2001 and May 31, 2002 may qualify for a portion of the $7.3 billion 9 11 victims compensation fund.

Breast cancer among men is being seen in unusually high numbers in those who worked in and around Ground Zero. A group of at least 15 men who toiled in the area while the smoke and dust still permeated the air have been diagnosed with breast cancer.

According to the American Cancer Society, not even one percent of breast cancer diagnoses include men. The combination of these men’s exposure to toxins and their rare diagnoses could mean they qualify for the 9 11 victims compensation fund.

Fifty-one-year-old John Mormando told The Guardian that he has no family history of breast cancer, and was shocked to discover a small lump on his chest was cancer.

Back in September 2001, Mormando worked a block away from the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers. He told The Guardian he went back to work the following week after the attacks when the buildings continued to burn and debris was still crumbling. He said the smell was horrible, but regulators assured New Yorkers the air was fine and to return to work.

A retired NYPD sergeant who helped victims at Ground Zero also sifted through debris for months after it was transported to Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island. Michael Guedes, now 65,  was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015 when his girlfriend told him to have a lump on his chest checked by a doctor. He credits her with saving his life because the cancer was quickly treated with a combination of surgery, chemo, radiation and continuing drugs to keep it at bay, according to The Guardian.

Another breast cancer survivor, Jeff Flynn, now 65, told The Guardian he never knew men could be diagnosed with breast cancer until he was diagnosed in 2011. He worked in a building not far from the World Trade Center, and said he went back to work very soon after the attacks. He was in the data storage business, and knew companies needed the computers working optimally for business relations to return to normal as soon as possible. He said he could even taste the putrid air.

9 11 Victims Compensation Fund Reopened

So far, more than 70 different cancers have been linked to carcinogens released into the environment when the Twin Towers collapsed. Aluminum, asbestos, glass and jet fuel smoke hung in the air for months.

An estimated 400,000 people suffered exposure to toxic substances and carcinogenic fumes that have led to cancer linked to Ground Zero.

Even though the original 9 11 victims compensation fund closed in 2004, the fund was re-opened in 2015 when then-President Barack Obama signed a bill to keep the fund opened through Dec. 18, 2020.