Additional Responders to Pentagon, Shanksville Eligible for World Trade Center Health Program
An expanded population of responders who served on 9/11 and in the following weeks is now eligible for the World Trade Center Health Program, which is administered by NIOSH and provides medical monitoring and treatment of health conditions related to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The program serves responders at the WTC and related sites in New York City, the Pentagon, and Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and survivors who were in the New York City disaster area. Additional responders who served at the Pentagon and in Shanksville are among those who may now qualify for the WTC Health Program under a new interim final rule that went into effect on Sept. 11, 2024.
Previous research published by NIOSH shows that up to 8,500 people may have responded to the Pentagon and more than 1,000 likely responded to the crash site in Shanksville. But only 1,183 Pentagon responders and 147 Shanksville responders were enrolled in the WTC Health Program prior to the publication of the new interim final rule, according to the agency. Eligibility for the program was previously limited to members of a fire or police department, to people who worked for a recovery or cleanup contractor, and to those who performed rescue, recovery, demolition, debris cleanup, or other related services. Individuals newly eligible for the WTC Health Program include employees of the Department of Defense or any other federal agency, contractors of the DOD or any other federal agency, and members of a regular or reserve component of the uniformed services.
To date, more than 84,000 people have been diagnosed with physical and mental health conditions resulting from 9/11 exposures to dust, debris, and traumatic events, and “experts predict that the health effects from these attacks will continue for many decades to come,” according to NIOSH.
Further details can be found in the agency’s news update.
Related:
Several articles in The Synergist have focused on 9/11 exposures, including “Looking Back on 9/11: Reflections on the 20th Anniversary of September 11, 2001” and “Hazard or Artifact?: How OEHS Informs Collection Management of World Trade Center Dust at the 9/11 Memorial & Museum.” The article “Exposures at the World Trade Center: Ten Years Later, What Have We Learned?” was originally published in the September 2011 issue of the magazine. A SynergistNOW blog post published in 2021 focuses on occupational and environmental health and safety professionals’ experiences on 9/11.