Greater exposure from Sept. 11, 2001, attacks tied to three times higher rate of disease incidence
By Lori Solomon HealthDay Reporter
FRIDAY, Oct. 17, 2025 (HealthDay News) — More severe exposures to World Trade Center (WTC) dust increase the risk for developing lung cancer, according to a study published online Oct. 9 in JAMA Network Open.
Sean A.P. Clouston, Ph.D., from Stony Brook University in New York, and colleagues examined the association between occupational exposures while working at the WTC disaster sites and the incidence of lung cancer more than a decade later. The analysis included 12,334 WTC responders aged 49.3 years at study inclusion.
The researchers identified 118 incident lung cancers between July 1, 2012, and Dec. 31, 2023 (incidence rate, 8.7/10,000 person-years). The incidence of lung cancer was higher among moderately (adjusted hazard ratio [AHR], 1.86; P = 0.007) and severely (AHR, 2.90; P < 0.001) exposed groups compared with those with mild exposures. Smelling fumes (AHR, 1.05; P = 0.007) or sewage (AHR, 1.03; P = 0.004) were the specific WTC exposures associated with a higher incidence of lung cancer after adjusting for demographics and measures of tobacco use.
“Previous studies did not identify any such link between lung cancer and WTC responders because of the short latency of exposures and low smoking rates in WTC responder populations,” coauthor Paolo Boffetta, M.D., also from Stony Brook University, said in a statement.
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