More than 23 years after the Twin Towers collapsed, blanketing lower Manhattan in toxic dust and debris, the number of people diagnosed with 9/11-related illnesses are still growing. Since 2011, the main resource for people exposed to the fumes has been the World Trade Center Health Program, which covers treatment for cancer, asthma, and post-traumatic stress disorder, among other health conditions.
Of the roughly 132,000 people enrolled in the program as of December, 64% have at least one condition linked to 9/11. Cancer is the most common, affecting more than 40,000 members. Some people join the program after an illness has developed, while others join to receive annual screenings that could detect illnesses in the future.
The program’s fate has seesawed over the past 10 weeks as the Trump administration fired and rehired certain staffers, only to terminate them again last month, according to lawyers and advocates for people with 9/11-related exposures. They added that the staffing cuts have made it harder to enroll members or confirm that their treatment is covered by federal funding.
“These cuts are going to potentially delay treatment, delay diagnosis, and early detection of their cancers, and it’s going to cost lives,” said Todd Cleckley, a nurse medical specialist at Barasch & McGarry, a law firm representing 9/11 responders and survivors. “The health program already operated on a very slim staffing margin,” he added. “We’re only beginning to see what those negative impacts will be.”
Sixteen of the program’s staffers were swept up in the Trump administration’s firing of probationary workers in February. The administration reinstated the positions roughly a week later, following outcry from both Republicans and Democrats in Congress.
Then in late March, the Department of Health and Human Services announced it was laying off around 20,000 federal employees. Those layoffs again included 16 staffers at the World Trade Center Health Program, plus the program’s director, according to lawyers and advocates. The director was reinstated on April 5 after more bipartisan opposition, they said, but the staffers were not.
“For anyone of my generation, 9/11 is really current events. And you don’t have to explain what happened,” says historian Dr. Henry William Brands of the University of Texas at Austin. But for young students who may not remember what happened – or weren’t even born yet – teachers have to explain how it felt at the time.
The HHS layoffs were part of a massive restructuring that gutted the agency responsible for the World Trade Center program, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). In addition to the 16 staffers, HHS terminated other institute employees in charge of certifying that patients’ 9/11-related illnesses were eligible for federal funding, lawyers and advocates said.
“If the NIOSH staffers aren’t reinstated, hospitals may not get reimbursed for chemotherapy or surgeries and eventually may stop offering them to patients,” Barasch said. “It’s bureaucratic cruelty. They’re trying to save money, which is fine, but don’t do it on the backs of the 9/11 community.”
Mariama James, a lower Manhattan resident who was pregnant with her third child during 9/11, said she has been waiting to see if the program will cover a treatment for her sleep apnea. She now expects that process to be delayed.
