Today marks 25 years since hijacked planes brought down the World Trade Center's twin towers. As my colleague Nancy Lapid reports, the CDC is moving to close a long-standing research gap: The US public health agency launches a study into the long-term health effects on children through the exposure to the toxins and the trauma on 9/11.
On that day roughly 25,000 children were living or attending school nearby in lower Manhattan, and thousands more were in surrounding neighborhoods. Some were infants and toddlers, while others were still in the womb.
Even though they were exposed to the massive toxic cloud and settling dust containing pulverized concrete, glass fibers, asbestos, and other pollutants after the towers fell, very few of these children were enrolled in the government-funded follow-up health studies of WTC survivors.
In adult survivors and first responders, dozens of types of cancers and other health issues related to their exposure have been identified. But data on the effects of childhood exposure has so far come only from small studies.
