Number of cancer cases among 9/11 responders and survivors TRIPLES to more than 5,400 in less than three years

In January 2014 the number of people in the WTC Health Program with cancer was just 1,822. Now it’s a massive 5,441, with 6,378 separate cancers recorded.

‘It’s been steady for at least the last year and a half – we’re seeing new people here being certified for cancer 10-15 times week. That’s every week,’ Dr Michael Crane, medical director of the program, told the NY Post.

The WTC Health Program provides medical monitoring and treatment for more than 48,000 people who responded to, or were victims of, the 9/11 attacks.

Those people are now at risk of more than 50 types of cancer that have been linked to the smoke and dust created in those attacks.

Victims can claim money from the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund, although it only made its first cancer payout in October 2013.

Long-time firefighter Ray Pfeifer, 58, is one of those stricken by the attacks: he now has Stage 4 kidney cancer that has spread throughout his body.

Hero: Firefighter Ray Pfeifer with Jon Stewart, receiving the key to New York

He was off-duty when the planes hit, but rushed straight to the scene and ultimately spent nine days working and sleeping at Ground Zero.

And he stayed at the site for a further eight months to find the remains of his team at Engine 40/Ladder 35 on the Upper West Side, 12 of whom were killed when the towers fell.

He ignored his coughing and shortness of breath until 2009, when a pain in his hip turned out to be a baseball-sized tumor. He has since undergone 11 surgeries.

And now he regularly visits the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where he finds himself in the company of other responders.

‘I see cops and firemen there,’ he told the NY Post. ‘It’s not unheard of to see five-to-ten people who worked on the pile getting treated for cancer.’

As well as the 48,000 people on the books of the WTC Health Program, there are 16,000 people on a separate program run by the Fire Department of New York.

Written by James Wilkinson for The Daily Mail ~ August 14, 2016.

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