Zadroga Act

September is Thyroid Cancer Awareness Month. There were nearly half a million first responders and survivors working, living, and studying in Lower Manhattan on and after 9/11 who have a higher risk of developing respiratory illness and 68 different types of cancer linked to the WTC toxins, including thyroid cancer. Barasch & McGarry represents nearly […]

A recent study in the medical journal Nature Medicine found that FDNY firefighters who worked at the World Trade Center site on and after 9/11 have an increased risk of all types of cancer, with a particularly elevated incidence of prostate, thyroid, and tonsil cancer, as well as melanoma. For thyroid cancer, for example, the […]

Thousands of emergency medical responders were deployed to Lower Manhattan on 9/11 and in the weeks and months that followed, to help people injured in the attack and participate in search-and-rescue and recovery operations. Yet even as these responders, members of FDNY EMS Local 2507 and DC 37 Local 3621, were saving lives, their own […]

There were thousands of hospitality workers in Lower Manhattan on 9/11, many of them members of the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union. Evacuated after the terrorist attacks, these workers returned in the following days and weeks to hotels, conference centers, cafeterias, executive dining rooms, and restaurants in the Financial District, Battery Park City, and […]

Westchester County recently asked the public to submit the names of people who passed away from 9/11-related illness for a memorial at Kensico Dam. The memorial honors first responders who were deployed to Ground Zero, the Pentagon or the Shanksville, PA, crash site, worked or lived in Westchester County, and died of a 9/11-related illness […]

There are currently 117,000 9/11 first responders and survivors enrolled in the World Trade Center (WTC) Health Program – most of them union members. The program offers free health care for chronic health conditions resulting from exposure to Ground Zero toxins, including cancer, respiratory and aerodigestive illnesses, acute traumatic injuries, musculoskeletal disorders, and mental health […]