Thousands have suffered and died from 9/11 health effects. A new moment of silence will honor them

Mario Tama/Getty Images

Bridget Gormley suspects her father was “well aware” he might one day get sick. She imagines him feeling a dark cloud following him around, “waiting to come when it wanted to.”

But the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, and the potential sicknesses that loomed over everyone who worked at Ground Zero, were “never discussed” in Gormley’s household, she told CNN — even after her father, Billy Gormley, got sick. It was likely a mix of “PTSD and guilt,” she said.

Only after her father, a New York City firefighter who spent months working at the World Trade Center site, died of bladder in cancer in 2017 did she start to understand the connection to his 9/11 recovery efforts — and the magnitude of 9/11-related illnesses. That Billy Gormley is one of thousands whose death is directly linked to exposure shocked her.

On Tuesday, New York City released more than 170,000 pages of previously undisclosed records showing city officials at the time misled the public about air quality around Ground Zero. The release not only underscores how dangerous the conditions were, but it is also an important moment for responders and survivors who have long fought for help and recognition.

Until this year, the annual September 11 commemoration ceremony at Ground Zero has included six moments of silence — one for each of the key fatal moments of that day. As the names of the nearly 3,000 victims are read aloud, a bell rings at the exact minute each of the four planes crashed and when each of the twin towers fell. Silence follows each time, and the reading of the names continues.

But what will follow this year acknowledges another growing toll.

Many survivors and first responders who spent that day and the following weeks toiling away amid the World Trade Center’s ash and rubble have died from diseases linked to their exposure to carcinogens and toxic chemicals. Thousands of others are still struggling with some of those same diseases.

The World Trade Center Health Program, established in 2011 after years of advocacy for compensation for survivors, provides medical monitoring for first responders and survivors, and free treatment for 9/11-related conditions.

As of June, more than 57,000 responders and survivors enrolled in the World Trade Center Health Program have been diagnosed with cancer. As of March 2024, nearly 7,000 people enrolled in the program had died.

A new seventh moment of silence is intended to honor those among that growing count, and their families, whose anguish over their health battles can be traced to that day.

After the traditional six bells have rung at the ceremony open to family members of people who died on 9/11, the seventh bell will ring. The victims who are still alive and the families of those who died years later will join the ceremony at 11:00 as names of victims continue to be read. The newly added bell, followed by the additional moment of silence, will then ring at approximately 12:30, according to a spokesperson for the 9/11 Memorial & Museum.

“It means having my dad’s story along with all the other stories acknowledged as a part of the entire 9/11 story, as well,” said Leah Betso, whose father, Officer James Betso of the New York City Police Department, died from brain cancer in 2015 after spending months in recovery operations at Ground Zero after the attacks.

“For a long time, I think that a lot of the focus is on the people who lost their lives on that horrific day. But for families like me, the loss came many years later, and this moment is recognizing that.”

This moment of silence is, for many first responders and survivors, a validation they’ve long fought for.

By now the lingering health impacts of 9/11 are better understood, with cancer, respiratory diseases and post-traumatic stress disorder among the most commonly diagnosed conditions. First responders and survivors can be treated for injuries and illnesses that arise from their exposure to the dust and debris through the World Trade Center Health Program — which, despite its name, also covers those who were at the Pentagon and responded to the field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where the third and fourth planes crashed.

But the road to help was fraught.

Some responders felt an awareness from the beginning their exposure would catch up to them.

After her father died, Bridget Gormley started speaking to many of his friends while making a film about the health effects of 9/11. One of the men recalled that in the early days at Ground Zero, he had said to a friend, “This is going to kill us all one day.”

“They said it like in jest and joking, but, like, they knew,” Gormley said.

But others hadn’t been aware.

Michael O’Connell was 25 on 9/11 and had just joined the New York City Fire Department as a probationary firefighter four months earlier. “I was a kid,” said O’Connell.

“I don’t think anybody else ever really thought that, ‘Oh, this is going to be bad in the future, you know, what we’re breathing in,’” he said, even though he was aware of the asthma and lung issues firefighters often face. Years later, that started to change.

“I started seeing firemen develop cancers, and then in 2007, I wound up getting sick with sarcoidosis,” O’Connell said. “That’s when it really became apparent that most people aren’t escaping this.” Sarcoidosis is a disease in which nodules form, most commonly, in the lymph nodes, lungs, bones and skin. The WTC Health Program has certified Connell’s condition, he said.

The documents released Tuesday showed city officials at the time knew conditions at the long-smoldering pit made the air there unsafe to breathe, despite repeatedly assuring New Yorkers the opposite.

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced the release alongside 9/11 families and comedian Jon Stewart, a longtime 9/11 first responder advocate .

“People got sick because the leaders they trusted lied and told them they were safe to breathe in toxic air,” Mamdani said.

O’Connell is one of the many first responders who spent years advocating and testifying in Congress for better health coverage for first responders.

While there were various programs to help survivors and responders, they were short-term and left many responders still in need of care and financial support. The federal September 11th Victim Compensation Fund launched in 2001 but initially ran only until 2003.

In 2011, after a near-decade of advocacy on the part of first responders, President Barack Obama signed the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010 , which established the WTC Health Program and reopened the compensation fund. The law was named for an NYPD officer whose death was linked to the toxic plume at Ground Zero.

But even after the fund was reopened, responders continued to advocate for long-term care. It wasn’t until 2019, after emotional pleas in Congress — including an angry speech by Stewart — that the health program funding was extended for another seven decades, through 2090.

Marco Postigo Storel/CNN

Survivors and first responders are still being newly diagnosed with 9/11-related illnesses: More than 7,000 first responders had been certified with a health condition by the WTC Health Program within the 12 months ending June 30, according to data released last month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Others have been reckoning with 9/11’s physical toll for years.

Ivonne Sanchez, who worked in emergency medical services recovering and identifying bodies, was injured twice — both at Ground Zero and decades later.

Sanchez fell sometime in the winter after September 11 while working recovery, she recalled. She was “startled” after she looked down and noticed remains, then fell backward onto a piece of rebar, which left her needing stitches.

She remembered the triage doctors giving her a pain reliever and offering to send her home or to the hospital. But she chose to stay. She attributed the pain that persisted in her back to the hours they were working; in the beginning, she remembered working 20- and even 25-hour shifts.

U.S. Customs/Getty Images

She said she continued to work until May 2002, determined to find more victims, though the pain persisted. Sanchez wanted to find her friend and fellow firefighter Hector Luis Tirado Jr., and that motivation kept her working even as the pain grew. She and Hector had just posed for the FDNY calendar; he was Mr. July. They were supposed to do a signing on the 9th, but she had had another commitment, and she promised him she’d be at the next one.

That she never found him still haunts her. “Every time I go down on 9/11 during the ceremony, I always, when I go into a museum, I feel, like, this heaviness. Like their ghosts are saying, ‘You didn’t find us. You didn’t find us.’ And in my head, I’m going, ‘I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. We tried.’”

It is what has stayed with her most, even as her own health has been turbulent.

When she finally saw an orthopedist after the recovery efforts were over, Sanchez said, she was told she had so much nerve damage she would never work again, and she was taken out of the line of duty. Today, she also has a spinal cord stimulator in her back to help with drop foot in her left leg.

In 2014, Sanchez was diagnosed with breast cancer, which she says has been certified through the WTC Health Program.

Many 9/11 first responders alive today feel as Sanchez does, more preoccupied with their survivor’s guilt than their own ailments.

“My heart goes to the families that lost (loved) ones that day, and you know, to the people that perished of 9/11 illnesses since then,” said retired New York Police Sgt. Thomas Wilson. “All my ailments happened afterwards. I’ve been able to live my life, though it’s painful.”

Through the WTC Health Program, Wilson has been, by his own account, certified with tongue cancer, skin cancer, PTSD, anxiety, asthma, sinus conditions and gastrointestinal conditions.

Wilson estimated he served 300 hours at Ground Zero, where he worked recovery and security, and Fresh Kills Landfill on Staten Island, which became a dumping ground and forensic site for Ground Zero debris.

At Fresh Kills, Wilson worked as a sifter, combing through debris with a metal rake. “You hope to find, like, a wedding ring or something to bring closure,” said Wilson. His last time at Fresh Kills was in April 2002. “I never found anything.”

While tens of thousands still suffer and recover from their diagnoses, thousands have died because of their 9/11 exposure. Their families still mourn them and reckon with the pain of knowing their loss is tied to that day.

Evelyn Betso still vividly remembers the morning of 9/11. The day had started wonderfully. She had just dropped her daughter Leah off for her first day of kindergarten.

“The sun was shining. It was a beautiful morning, and they were all there in their little Catholic uniforms,” Evelyn said, recalling the students out in the play yard.

Evelyn “was all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed” when she got to her office. “I walked into work and everybody in the office were just looking at me. And I thought, ‘God, what’s going on?’”

Her husband, James, was in the NYPD, and her brother Paul was a flight attendant. Her mother and mother-in-law started calling her. Where were their sons?

Paul and James were both safe that day, Paul on a flight to Miami and James already working at Ground Zero.

Years later, in April 2010, while taking his daughter Jade to the movies, James saw a blood drive and went to donate, Evelyn said. His hemoglobin, a protein in blood, was so low he was sent to the hospital. There, she said, he was diagnosed with two blood cancers, non-Hodgkin lymphoma and myelodysplastic syndrome.

For two years, James was “very sick,” Evelyn said. He couldn’t walk or even go from the bed to the couch without getting out of breath. “All the treatments really took a toll on him.”

After nearly two years, James finally went into remission. “We thought, ‘Oh God, this is great! It’s all done. It’s, you know, it’s behind us,’” Evelyn said. “He was getting on with his life.”

Then, in 2013, James returned from getting bagels on a Sunday morning. “I don’t feel good,” he told Evelyn. “There’s something going on.” When Evelyn tried to take him to the emergency room, he insisted he was fine. Minutes later he fell to the ground in their backyard, his hands on his head, and started to seize.

Jade, 12 at the time, “came running out in her bare feet, and she was screaming,” Evelyn said.

He had a grand mal seizure — now known as a tonic-clonic seizure, among the most severe kinds. He would ultimately be diagnosed with glioblastoma, the cancer he would die from two years later; James’ cancers, Evelyn said, were certified by the WTC Health Program.

In the final years of James’ life, it was very hard on their daughters, Evelyn said, and they both struggled to watch their father deteriorate.

The last year of his life “he couldn’t express himself,” Evelyn said. “He couldn’t talk. He was on a cane. He couldn’t button his shirt.” One morning he was making himself coffee in the kitchen, she remembered, and the whole jar of coffee fell to the floor.

Evelyn remembered James as a very tall, strong and independent man. “It broke his heart to know that his daughters could see him like this.”

Stan Honda/AFP via Getty Images

Marcy Borders was known to the world as the “Dust Lady.” In what became an iconic image from that day, 28-year-old Marcy – dressed for work in a skirt suit and pearls – reaches out her hands, looking almost like a statue, coated in a thick layer of dust in the lobby of the World Trade Center’s North Tower.

When her daughter Noelle Borders first saw the image, she was frightened. “It was a reflection of what my mom felt when she saw it,” said Noelle, who was only 8 at the time.

Marcy struggled with depression and addiction for years in the aftermath, but eventually grew to embrace the powerful image and “what it meant, not only to herself but to the world.”

In 2015, Marcy died of stomach cancer at age 42, a diagnosis that initially shocked her family as she’d “never had any health issues,” said Noelle. “She’s always been 100% healthy.” Noelle said she believes her mother’s cancer had been certified by the WTC Health Program.

The Borders family had seen how others were getting sick; it wasn’t difficult to “connect the dots.”

“You feel like, OK, we got through this one tragic event, and now in a way, it’s still affecting your life,” said Noelle. “Even though you felt like you overcame it.”

The WTC Health Program continues to reach and treat people. As of June, there were more than 154,000 people enrolled — though one does not have to be sick to be enrolled in the program.

Michael Crane is the medical director of the WTC Health Program Clinical Center of Excellence at Mount Sinai in New York, and he encourages as many people as possible who were living in the city at and around the time of 9/11 to get involved with World Trade Center health programs.

More than 95,000 first responders are enrolled in the WTC Health Program, which Crane estimates is close to the true number of first responders. But the percentage is much smaller for other survivors: As of June, there were fewer than 60,000 of them enrolled in the program, which concerns Crane, who said around 400,000 people who lived and worked around the towers qualify as survivors.

“Environmental exposure is proven to have impact on everybody: adults, children, babies,” said Crane. “Particularly exposure like this.” Crane recalled the dust — the exposure — being everywhere. He doesn’t think the dust was truly out of the subways until Superstorm Sandy in 2012, when “the place flooded and got rid, finally, of large amounts of lingering dust.”

While most first responders who get sick later in life may quickly draw a connection to their work at the site of the World Trade Center, survivors who developed illnesses decades later, Crane fears, may not.

He said he hopes the 25th anniversary and the new moment of silence is a renewed opportunity to spread the word. “You have this program out there for you folks who live down there, and for your children, so take advantage of it. And you know, it can’t hurt. It can’t hurt to go and get evaluated.”

Mario Tama/Getty Images

布里奇特·戈姆利怀疑她的父亲“很清楚”自己总有一天会生病。她想象着他感觉有一团乌云一直跟着他，“随时准备降临”。

但戈姆利告诉CNN，2001年9月11日的恐怖袭击以及笼罩着所有在世贸中心遗址工作人员的潜在疾病，在她家“从未被提及”——即便在她父亲比利·戈姆利生病之后也是如此。她说，这很可能是“创伤后应激障碍和内疚感”共同作用的结果。

直到她的父亲——一位曾在世贸中心遗址工作数月的纽约市消防员——于2017年因膀胱癌去世后，她才开始理解父亲参与9/11事件救援工作与自身疾病之间的联系，以及9/11相关疾病的严重程度。比利·戈姆利是成千上万因暴露于9/11事件辐射而死亡的人之一，这一事实令她震惊不已。

周二，纽约市公布了超过17万页此前从未公开的记录，这些记录显示，当时的市政府官员就世贸中心遗址附近的空气质量问题误导了公众。此次公布不仅凸显了当时空气质量的危险程度，对于长期以来一直争取援助和认可的救援人员和幸存者来说，也是一个重要的时刻。

直到今年，每年在世贸中心遗址举行的9·11纪念仪式都包含六次默哀——一次默哀，纪念当天发生的六起致命事件。在宣读近3000名遇难者姓名时，钟声会在四架飞机坠毁和双子塔倒塌的精确时刻响起。每次默哀之后，人们继续宣读遇难者姓名。

但今年接下来的一系列举措将承认另一种日益严重的损失。

许多在世贸中心废墟中奋战一天及接下来几周的幸存者和救援人员，都因接触致癌物和有毒化学物质而患上相关疾病，最终不幸去世。另有数千人仍在与这些疾病作斗争。

世界贸易中心健康计划成立于 2011 年，此前多年来一直倡导为幸存者提供赔偿。该计划为急救人员和幸存者提供医疗监测，并为 9/11 相关疾病提供免费治疗。

截至6月，已有超过57000名参加世界贸易中心健康计划的救援人员和幸存者被诊断出患有癌症。截至2024年3月，该计划中已有近7000人去世。

新增的第七次默哀是为了纪念那些因健康问题而遭受痛苦的人们及其家人，他们的痛苦可以追溯到那一天。

在向9·11事件遇难者家属开放的纪念仪式上，传统的六声钟响后，第七声钟声将会响起。届时，在世的遇难者家属以及多年后逝世者的家属将于上午11点加入仪式，继续宣读遇难者名单。据9·11纪念馆和博物馆发言人称，新增的这声钟声以及随后的默哀仪式将于大约12点30分响起。

“这意味着我父亲的故事，以及所有其他故事，都将作为整个 9/11 事件故事的一部分得到认可，”莉亚·贝特索说道。她的父亲詹姆斯·贝特索是纽约市警察局的一名警官，在袭击发生后，他在世贸中心遗址参与了数月的救援行动，并于 2015 年因脑癌去世。

“长期以来，我认为人们的关注点大多集中在那些在那场可怕的灾难中丧生的人身上。但对于像我这样的家庭来说，失去亲人的痛苦是在多年之后才到来的，而此刻正是对这一点的承认。”

对于许多急救人员和幸存者来说，这一刻的默哀是对他们长期以来争取到的肯定。

如今，人们对“9·11”事件遗留的健康影响有了更深入的了解，其中癌症、呼吸系统疾病和创伤后应激障碍是最常见的诊断疾病。第一响应者和幸存者可以通过世界贸易中心健康计划接受因接触灰尘和碎片而导致的伤病治疗——尽管该计划名为“世界贸易中心健康计划”，但它也涵盖了在五角大楼以及前往宾夕法尼亚州尚克斯维尔（第三架和第四架飞机坠毁地点）现场的救援人员。

但伸出援手的道路却充满坎坷。

有些救援人员从一开始就意识到，他们所接触的病毒终有一天会对他们造成影响。

父亲去世后，布里奇特·戈姆利在拍摄一部关于 9/11 事件对健康影响的电影时，开始与他的许多朋友交谈。其中一位男士回忆说，在世贸中心遗址的早期，他曾对一位朋友说：“总有一天，这会要了我们所有人的命。”

“他们说这话的时候好像是在开玩笑，但其实他们心里明白，”戈姆利说。

但其他人却毫不知情。

迈克尔·奥康奈尔在9·11事件发生时25岁，四个月前刚刚以试用消防员的身份加入纽约市消防局。“我当时还是个孩子，”奥康奈尔说。

“我觉得其他人从来没真正想过，‘哦，我们吸入的这些东西，以后肯定会出问题，’”他说，尽管他很清楚消防员经常面临的哮喘和肺部问题。多年后，这种情况开始改变。

“我开始看到消防员患上癌症，然后在2007年，我自己也患上了结节病，”奥康奈尔说。“那时我才真正意识到，大多数人都逃不过这种病。”结节病是一种会在淋巴结、肺部、骨骼和皮肤等部位形成结节的疾病。他说，世贸中心健康计划已经确认了他的病情。

周二公布的文件显示，当时的市政官员明知这个长期闷烧的煤坑里的空气状况不安全，却一再向纽约市民保证情况恰恰相反。

纽约市长佐兰·马姆达尼与 9/11 事件遇难者家属和长期支持 9/11 事件一线救援人员的喜剧演员乔恩·斯图尔特共同宣布了这一消息。

“人们生病是因为他们信任的领导人撒谎，告诉他们呼吸有毒的空气是安全的，”马姆达尼说。

奥康奈尔是众多一线救援人员之一，他多年来一直倡导并在国会作证，争取为一线救援人员提供更好的医疗保障。

虽然当时有各种项目旨在帮助幸存者和救援人员，但这些项目都是短期的，许多救援人员仍然需要护理和经济支持。联邦政府设立的“9·11”事件受害者赔偿基金于2001年启动，但最初只运行到2003年。

2011年，在急救人员近十年的不懈努力下，巴拉克·奥巴马总统签署了《2010年詹姆斯·扎德罗加9/11健康与赔偿法案》，该法案设立了世贸中心健康计划并重新启动了赔偿基金。该法案以纽约市警察局一名警官的名字命名，他的死与世贸中心遗址的有毒烟雾有关。

但即便基金重新开放后，救援人员仍继续呼吁提供长期护理。直到2019年，在国会经过一番充满感情的呼吁——包括斯图尔特的一次愤怒演讲——这项医疗保健计划的资金才得以延长70年，直至2090年。

Marco Postigo Storel/CNN

幸存者和一线救援人员仍在不断被诊断出患有与“9·11”事件相关的疾病：根据美国疾病控制与预防中心上月公布的数据，在截至6月30日的12个月内，已有超过7000名一线救援人员通过世贸中心健康计划确诊患有某种疾病。还有一些人多年来一直在与“9·11”事件带来的身体创伤作斗争。

伊冯娜·桑切斯曾在紧急医疗服务部门工作，负责搜寻和辨认尸体，她曾两次受伤——一次是在世贸中心遗址，另一次是在几十年后。

桑切斯回忆说，9·11事件后的一个冬天，她在进行善后工作时摔倒了。她低头看到残骸后“吓了一跳”，然后向后摔倒，撞到一根钢筋上，导致她缝了针。

她记得分诊医生给她开了止痛药，并提出让她回家或去医院。但她选择留下。她把持续的背痛归咎于长时间的工作；她记得一开始，她经常要上20个小时甚至25个小时的班。

美国海关/盖蒂图片社

她说，尽管痛苦依旧，她仍坚持工作到2002年5月，决心找到更多遇难者。桑切斯一心想找到她的朋友兼同事、消防员赫克托·路易斯·蒂拉多二世，正是这份执念支撑着她，即使痛苦与日俱增。她和赫克托刚刚为纽约市消防局的日历拍完照；他是七月先生。他们原本计划在9号举行签名会，但她另有安排，并向他承诺下次一定参加。

她始终没能找到他，这件事一直困扰着她。“每次9·11纪念仪式举行时，每次走进博物馆，我都会感到一种沉重的气氛。仿佛他们的亡灵在说：‘你们没找到我们。你们没找到我们。’而我的心里却在说：‘对不起。对不起。对不起。我们尽力了。’”

尽管她自身的健康状况一直不稳定，但这件事始终萦绕在她心头。

桑切斯说，康复治疗结束后，她终于见到了骨科医生。医生告诉她，她的神经损伤非常严重，再也无法工作，于是她被调离了工作岗位。如今，她的背部还植入了脊髓刺激器，以帮助治疗左腿的垂足。

2014 年，桑切斯被诊断出患有乳腺癌，她说这已通过世界贸易中心健康计划得到认证。

许多在9/11事件中幸存下来的救援人员如今都和桑切斯一样，他们更多地被幸存者的愧疚感所困扰，而不是自身的疾病。

“我向那天失去亲人的家庭致以最深切的慰问，也向那些此后因9/11事件引发的疾病而去世的人们致以最深切的哀悼，”退休的纽约警官托马斯·威尔逊说道。“我的所有疾病都是在那之后发生的。虽然生活充满痛苦，但我仍然能够继续生活下去。”

据威尔逊本人所述，通过世贸中心健康计划，他获得了舌癌、皮肤癌、创伤后应激障碍、焦虑症、哮喘、鼻窦疾病和胃肠道疾病的认证。

威尔逊估计他在世贸中心遗址工作了 300 小时，在那里他从事救援和安保工作；他还在斯塔滕岛的弗雷什基尔斯垃圾填埋场工作，那里后来成为了世贸中心遗址废墟的倾倒场和法医鉴定场。

在弗雷什基尔斯，威尔逊做过筛土工，用金属耙子梳理垃圾。“你希望能找到什么，比如结婚戒指之类的，好让一切有个了结，”威尔逊说。他最后一次去弗雷什基尔斯是在2002年4月。“我什么也没找到。”

尽管数以万计的人仍在与疾病作斗争并努力康复，但仍有数千人因9/11事件的辐射暴露而丧生。他们的家人至今仍在哀悼他们，并承受着失去亲人与那一天息息相关的痛苦。

伊芙琳·贝索至今仍清晰地记得9·11事件发生的那个早晨。那天原本是个美好的开始。她刚刚送女儿莉娅去上幼儿园，那天是莉娅上幼儿园的第一天。

“阳光明媚，那是一个美好的早晨，他们都穿着天主教学校的小制服，”伊芙琳回忆起学生们在操场上玩耍的情景时说道。

伊芙琳到办公室时“精神抖擞，神采奕奕”。“我走进办公室，所有人都盯着我看。我心想，‘天哪，这是怎么回事？’”

她的丈夫詹姆斯是纽约警察局的警员，她的哥哥保罗是空乘人员。她的母亲和婆婆开始给她打电话，问她们的儿子在哪里。

那天保罗和詹姆斯都很安全，保罗当时正乘飞机前往迈阿密，而詹姆斯已经在世贸中心遗址工作了。

几年后，2010年4月，詹姆斯带着女儿杰德去看电影时，看到一个献血活动，便去献血了，伊芙琳说。他的血红蛋白（血液中的一种蛋白质）含量极低，被送往医院。她说，在那里，他被诊断出患有两种血液癌症：非霍奇金淋巴瘤和骨髓增生异常综合征。

伊芙琳说，詹姆斯“病得很重”，这种情况持续了两年。他无法行走，甚至从床上走到沙发上都会气喘吁吁。“所有的治疗都让他身心俱疲。”

将近两年后，詹姆斯的病情终于缓解了。“我们当时想，‘哦，天哪，太好了！一切都结束了。你知道，一切都过去了，’”伊芙琳说。“他开始重新生活了。”

2013年的一个星期天早上，詹姆斯买完百吉饼回来。“我感觉不太舒服，”他告诉伊芙琳，“好像出了什么事。”伊芙琳想带他去急诊室，但他坚持说自己没事。几分钟后，他突然倒在自家后院的地上，双手抱头，开始抽搐。

当时12岁的杰德“光着脚跑了出来，尖叫着，”伊芙琳说。

他突发大发作——现在称为强直-阵挛性发作，属于最严重的癫痫类型之一。他最终被诊断出患有胶质母细胞瘤，两年后因这种癌症去世；伊芙琳说，詹姆斯的癌症是由世贸中心健康计划认证的。

伊芙琳说，在詹姆斯生命的最后几年里，这对他们的女儿们来说非常艰难，她们都难以忍受看着父亲的身体每况愈下。

伊芙琳说，他生命的最后一年“他无法表达自己”。“他不会说话，拄着拐杖，衬衫扣子也扣不上。”她记得，有一天早上，他在厨房给自己煮咖啡，结果整罐咖啡都掉到了地上。

伊芙琳回忆说，詹​​姆斯身材高大，体格强壮，独立自主。“他一想到女儿们会看到他这副模样，就心如刀绞。”

Stan Honda/AFP via Getty Images

玛西·博德斯被世人称为“灰尘女士”。在那一天，一张标志性的照片诞生了：28岁的玛西身着职业套装裙，佩戴珍珠项链，伸出双手，看起来就像一座雕像，身上覆盖着厚厚的灰尘，站在世界贸易中心北塔的大厅里。

她的女儿诺埃尔·博德斯第一次看到这张照片时，感到很害怕。“这反映了我妈妈看到照片时的感受，”当时只有8岁的诺埃尔说。

事后，玛西多年来一直与抑郁症和毒瘾作斗争，但最终她接受了这幅强大的画面以及“它不仅对她自己，而且对世界的意义”。

2015年，玛西因胃癌去世，年仅42岁。诺埃尔说，这个诊断最初令她的家人震惊不已，因为她“以前从未有过任何健康问题”。“她一直都非常健康。”诺埃尔表示，她相信母亲的癌症是由世贸中心健康计划认证的。

博德斯一家亲眼目睹了其他人是如何生病的；“把这些点联系起来”并不难。

“你会觉得，好吧，我们挺过了这场悲剧，但从某种程度上来说，它仍然影响着你的生活，”诺埃尔说。“即使你觉得自己已经克服了它。”

世贸中心健康计划持续为民众提供医疗服务。截至6月，已有超过15.4万人注册参与该计划——尽管并非只有患病者才能加入。

迈克尔·克莱恩是纽约西奈山世界贸易中心健康计划临床卓越中心的医疗主任，他鼓励在 9/11 事件发生前后居住在纽约市的尽可能多的人参与世界贸易中心健康计划。

超过9.5万名一线救援人员已加入世贸中心健康计划，克莱恩估计这接近一线救援人员的实际人数。但其他幸存者的参保比例要低得多：截至6月，只有不到6万人加入了该计划。克莱恩对此感到担忧，他表示，大约有40万曾在世贸中心双塔附近居住和工作的人符合幸存者的资格。

“环境污染已被证实会对所有人产生影响：成人、儿童、婴儿，”克莱恩说。“尤其是像这样的污染。”克莱恩回忆说，当时地铁里到处都是灰尘——到处都是灰尘。他认为，直到2012年的桑迪飓风，“洪水淹没了地铁，最终冲走了大量残留的灰尘”，地铁里的灰尘才真正消失。

克莱恩担心，虽然大多数在晚年患病的急救人员可能会很快将疾病与他们在世贸中心遗址的工作联系起来，但几十年后患病的幸存者可能不会。

他说，他希望25周年纪念日和新的默哀仪式能成为一个重新传播信息的契机。“你们这些住在低洼地区的人们，还有你们的孩子，都应该利用好这个项目。而且，去做个评估总没坏处，何乐而不为呢？”