9/11 firefighters more likely to get cancer: study

Firefighters exposed to the World Trade Center attacks are more likely to get cancer, while 9/11 rescue workers still suffer high illness rates generally, according to studies published Friday.

In a 10th anniversary edition of medical journal The Lancet, scientists said however that death rates among emergency staff and civilians who survived the disaster were lower than those of the wider New York City population. "The events of that day changed the historical trajectory of America and the world.

They have had -- and continue to have -- profound consequences for health," the Lancet journal said in an editorial. One study showed that New York City firefighters who rushed to the doomed Twin Towers a decade ago are 19 percent more likely to have cancer than their non-exposed colleagues and a comparable section of the city's population.

There were 263 cancer cases in the exposed firefighters compared with 238 expected from general population data, while from the non-exposed group there were only 135 compared with 161 expected from the general population.

The study, led by David Prezant, chief medical officer of the Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY), and colleagues, looked at 9,853 male firefighters with health records dating back to well before 9/11. Another study in the Lancet showed a high burden of both physical and mental illness in the estimated 50,000 rescue and recovery workers involved in the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York by Al-Qaeda. Data gathered from more than 27,000 of those workers, who enrolled in a federally funded monitoring programme, showed that 28 percent had developed asthma, 42 percent sinusitis, and 39 percent gastrooesophageal reflux disease.

Twenty-eight percent had depression, 32 percent had post traumatic stress disorder and 21 percent had panic disorder, said the study by Juan Wisnivesky, of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York state. "Our findings show a substantial burden of persistent physical and mental disorders in rescue and recovery workers who rushed to the site of the WTC and laboured there for weeks and months 10 years ago," the study said. But World Trade Center-exposed rescue workers and civilians have had lower death rates than New York City general population, a third study by researchers at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

They said the fact that most of those exposed were employed and that they had volunteered for the study -- both employed people and study volunteers are largely healthier than the overall population -- could account for the result.

Source: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/09/02/911-firefighters-more-likely-to-get-cancer-study/

Increased Tensions with Unresolved 9/11 Issues

Several contentious issues still plague the US government and their version of the events of September 11, 2001. Those in political power along with media elites would like to see the ongoing grassroots debates surrounding unanswered 9/11 questions and discrepancies disappear, despite the mountains of evidence that suggest that American citizens were told little about the truth of the biggest single-day attack on their homeland in history. Nearly ten years after the events, many unanswered questions still exist: How did Building 7 fall? What caused the destruction of the twin towers? Where is Osama bin Laden? Are people that question the official story of 9/11 dangerous conspiracy theorists?

Student Researchers:

• Mike Smith, Nolan Higdon, and Sy Cowie (Diablo Valley College)
• Mikey Hemkens, Ryan Huffman, and Colin Doran (DePauw University)
• Greg Bernardi (Sonoma State University)

Faculty Evaluators:

• Mickey Huff (Diablo Valley College)
• Andrea Sununu and Kevin Howley (DePauw University)
• Rick Luttmann and Peter Phillips (Sonoma State University)

The academics and intellectuals who have tried to answer these questions have been ignored or derided by corporate mainstream (and even some progressive leftist) media, political pundits, and government officials who clearly intend to silence the so-called 9/11 Truth Movement, or anyone who questions the officially sanctioned government stance on the matter. However, the questions will not go away and increasingly beg for answers.

As of spring 2010, over 1,200 architects and engineers are calling for a new investigation into the events of 9/11. These building professionals and academics are motivated by the fact that the 9/11 Commission Report has been proven erroneous on multiple counts, scientific explanations have been flawed and contradictory, and the American people deserve a more fact-based explanation.

At the same time, new evidence of explosives that can be used in controlled demolition has been found in the dust traces of the World Trade Center (WTC) towers and Building 7 of the WTC complex. After careful examination of the official story about 9/11 (in which the commission never even mentioned Building 7), along with the forensic data omitted from official reports, these professionals have concluded that a new independent and transparent investigation into these massive and mysterious structural failures is needed.

http://www.projectcensored.org/top-stories/articles/14-increased-tensions-with-unresolved-911-issues/