There are now 70 plus different 9/11 cancer types listed as qualifying Victim’s Compensation Fund (VCF) diseases for those that were present in lower Manhattan for the terrorist attack or for the following cleanup months.

Recently, an article was published by Science Daily which indicates that head and neck cancers are on the rise among this population 17 years after the fact.

What are Head and Neck Cancers?

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), head and neck cancers are those which start in various locations in the head and throat and do not include brain cancer.

The locations of the cancer can be in the exterior and interior mouth—such as lips, tongue, gums, and roof of mouth—as well as three sections of the throat—known as the nasopharynx, oropharynx, and hypopharynx. The pharynx literally means throat and these refer to the parts adjacent to the nasal area, oral area, and region just above the voice box or larynx.

In addition to these areas, head and neck 9/11 cancer types can include cancer of the larynx, sinuses, and salivary glands. Secondary risk factors that are primary in the absence of being near or around Ground Zero from Sept. 11, 2001 to May 31, 2002 include tobacco product use, alcohol use, and the human papillomavirus (HPV), previous infection with the Epstein-Barr Virus, or mononucleosis.

The CDC indicates that tobacco use of any kind including cigars, pipes, and chewing tobacco have an effect. Additionally, alcoholic beverages like wine and beer—typically considered benign—are among head and neck cancer’s provocateurs.

Finally—and most importantly as it relates to 9/11 cancer types—occupational exposure in various fields such as construction to chemicals, asbestos, formaldehyde, dusts, lead, and nickel is a big contributor to an eventual diagnosis of head and neck cancer.

According to statistics posted on Cancer.Net, among all cancers diagnosed, head and neck cancers represent approximately 4 percent of cancer cases in the U.S. These cancers tend to be more often diagnosed in men than women and in people over the age of 50.

According to Science Daily, a study which recently appeared in the International Journal of Cancer noted a 40 percent uptick in head and neck cancer in the three-year window between 2009 and 2012.

This increase reveals a need to monitor World Trade Center exposed people—whether they were first responders, public servants, volunteers, residents or students—in lower Manhattan in the light of exposures and secondary risk factors.

The study was two years in length and was designed to determine if first responders or others present during the terrorist attacks and afterwards are more susceptible to contraction of the HPV virus.

The study used statistics of head and neck cancers based on the state of New Jersey Cancer Registry and compared it with the statistics of head and neck 9/11 cancer types from among 33,809 people enrolled in the World Trade Center Health Program. The data reportedly points to the need to examine the effects of toxic exposure from the terrorist attacks in the context of other risk factors over the long haul.