The federal government is finally expected this week to add cancer to the list of illnesses covered by a 9/11 compensation fund, says the New York Post.
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health is likely to add 50 types of cancer to be according to lawyers Michael Barasch and Noah Kushlefsky.
The Zadroga Act, passed almost two years ago, originally did not cover cancer because it was .
“There’s new scientific evidence,” Barasch said, “that dust is what is now linked to not only the respiratory illnesses, but all these cancers.”
“It’s a bittersweet thing,” John Walcott, an NYPD detective diagnosed with leukemia after working at Ground Zero, told the paper. “It took 11 years to do what should have been done a long time ago.”
According to the Post, recent estimates show that about 400 responders and residents have died from cancer since 9/11.
In May, at SUNY Downstate Medical Center for non-FDNY responders, which has the means to serve 3,000 Brooklyn residents who suffer from mental and physical ailments related to exposures at Ground Zero.
The Victim Compensation Fund’s special master, Sheila Birnbaum, said she doesn’t expect the cancer announcement to correlate to more money directed at the fund, but believes NIOSH will release official details by Tuesday, the 11th anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks.
