The events of 9/11 made these women sick. Twenty years later, why are they still left out of the health coverage that was created for them? A report in collaboration with fullerproject
Photo: Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images Leigh Calmar still can’t forget the dust. About a month after the Twin Towers collapsed on September 11, 2001, she returned to working downtown, at an architecture firm, after maternity leave. On the walk to her office building in the Financial District, she remembers seeing dust from the collapsed buildings. There was even dust in her office, on the window ledges and desks.
In 2009, Calmar, then 48, was diagnosed with breast cancer. Though she had insurance, her chemotherapy and radiation treatments racked up huge medical bills. The federal World Trade Center Health Program , set up to support survivors and responders alike, wouldn’t be available until 2011. Now 60, Calmar is enrolled in the program, so if her breast cancer were to recur, the government would cover treatment. “That is such a relief for me,” she says.
Though advocates estimate that survivors outnumber responders three to one, male responders make up nearly two-thirds of health-program enrollees, and most initial research to determine linked conditions was conducted on first responders, they say. Cancer is the most common recognized condition among survivors. Women make up 47 percent of survivors enrolled in the program, according to CDC data, and breast cancer in women is the third-most-prevalent cancer in the program overall. Data is lacking, however, on other female-oriented health problems like uterine cancers and autoimmune diseases, which are more common in women than men.
Unfortunately, this won’t do much to help women like Emily*, who had a civilian job with the New York Police Department before 9/11. Afterward, she was reassigned to help identify missing people, putting her downtown on the day of the attack and for several months that followed. In fall 2019, Emily, who is postmenopausal, suddenly started bleeding regularly, requiring pads. Soon after, she was diagnosed with endometrial cancer and had surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation to treat it.
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