[MUSIC]

Brian Lehrer: It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Good morning, everyone. We begin as we usually do on September 11th by joining the 9:59 AM Moment of Silence at the World Trade Center remembrance ceremony.

Speaker 1: -will be brought to justice. In 2001, the world echoed, "Never forget."

Brian Lehrer: They are still reading some of the names that lead up to this moment of silence. Let's listen.

Speaker 1: -held accountable.

[applause] [bell tolls]

[pause 00:01:04]

Brian Lehrer: The tolling of the bell is in these moments of silence.

Speaker 1: As always, may God bless our first responders, post-September 11th victims, our military here and abroad. May God bless us freedom of speech, and may God bless America.

Speaker 2: And my brother, Kevin L. Bowser, from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. We will never forget him and all of our loved ones we lost that day. This is history that brings us all together. History is the heart and soul of our lives. We must protect it and never forget it. God bless America.

[applause]

Brian Lehrer: With the reading of the names continuing and a few remarks that some of the loved ones are able to make in that context, we recall that it was at exactly 9:59 AM on September 11, 2001, when the South Tower collapsed after it had been struck by the terrorist airplane attack less than an hour earlier at 9:03. Each year at the World Trade Center, as most of you know, loved ones of those killed, plus elected officials and others gather for this ceremony that includes the alphabetical reading of the names of the 9/11 dead and the tolling of bells in those moments of silence pauses.

Today, tragically, we seem to have two acts of political terrorism to acknowledge 9/11 on this 24th anniversary, and what appears to be the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. We'll talk about the killing of Kirk later in the show and the larger cycle of political violence the country is in in recent years that the murder of Kirk is part of. We devote this first segment, as we customarily do on September 11th each year, to something that honors those killed.

This year, it's not just a remembrance of the 2,977 people by the official count counted as murdered on that day. 19 hijackers died, too, in those suicide attacks. We focus primarily today, though, on the many more people who have died from or been diagnosed with cancer from what are believed to be 9/11-related causes. The latest numbers from the World Trade Center Health Program are that 48,579 people have gotten what they consider to be 9/11 cancers. First, we'll hear some of the names being read once again in the bells in the next moment of silence. At 10:03, the moment of silence has begun.

[bell tolls]

[pause 00:04:14]

Speaker 3: Denis P. Germain, Lawrence D. Getzfred, Susan M. Getzendanner, Cortez Ghee, James G. Geyer, Vincent Francis Giammona, Joseph M. Giaccone.

Brian Lehrer: The 10:03 moment of silence at the World Trade Center ceremony, commemorating what the 9/11 Memorial & Museum describes this way, after learning of the other attacks, passengers on United Airlines Flight 93 launched a counterattack on hijackers aboard their plane to try to seize control of the aircraft. In response, the hijackers crashed the plane into an empty field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. 40 passengers and crew members were killed when the hijackers brought Flight 93 down. It's believed they wanted to crash the plane into a government building in Washington, DC. Another plane, as most of you know, had already been flown into the Pentagon.

As I said earlier, our primary focus in this segment today is on those who have been sickened or died in the aftermath of the attack. The latest numbers from the World Trade Center Health Program once again are that 48,579 people have gotten what they consider to be 9/11 cancers. With me now is Dr. Steven Markowitz, an MD and DrPH, Doctor of Public Health. He's an occupational medicine physician, internist, and epidemiologist who directs the Barry Commoner Center for Health and the Environment at CUNY. His bio page notes that Dr. Markowitz has conducted research in the areas of World Trade Center health, among other things, and has published more than 100 journal articles and book chapters. Dr. Markowitz, thank you for being our guest on this day. Welcome to WNYC.

Dr. Steven Markowitz: Thank you, Brian. I'm grateful to be on the show. I know it's a tough day, but the day continues, really, with the ongoing impact. We need to talk about it. Thank you.

Brian Lehrer: Indeed. Listeners, we also want to invite any of you to call in who are yourself suffering from a 9/11-related illness, or if you know anyone who currently is or has died from one. 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. Maybe you or your loved one is one of the people officially registered with the World Trade Center Health Program, which we'll describe. In this segment on this September 11th, we want to invite you to say out loud what you or a loved one has been through, and how it's related to the aftermath of September 11, 2001, and what you still need.

There are still questions about government funding for the World Trade Center Health Program, for example, 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692, with your stories or those of people you know or knew. You can also text if you prefer, 212-433-WNYC, as we want to give you every opportunity to tell your relevant stories or to pay your tributes. 212-433-9692, call or text. Dr. Markowitz, your bio that I read from is on the 9/11 Health Watch site. That's different from the World Trade Center Health Program. Would you tell us what 9/11 Health Watch is?

Dr. Steven Markowitz: Sure. It's a non-profit that is dedicated to monitoring or watching the current World Trade Center Health Program with the idea of identifying strengths, but also areas that need attention, and then trying to secure attention to improve the program. It's an excellent program, but it needs improvement in various areas. We try to identify those areas. It's mostly labor unions that represent the responders at 9/11.

Brian Lehrer: We'll get into the World Trade Center Health Program and what you think its current strengths and weaknesses and risks to it are. The stat I cited in the intro, 48,579 in the latest numbers from the World Trade Center Health Program, as I've seen reported in multiple news organizations, also counting a 143% increase, meaning more than double, 1.5 times what they had had as a number five years ago. Can you begin to describe your understanding of what that number means, 48,000, or how it could be that many World Trade Center-related cancers?

Dr. Steven Markowitz: Well, I can't really describe what it means to those 48,000 individuals and speak for them, but I will talk about the numbers recognizing that these are real people who have really suffered. It is a doubling in just five years. If you look at the other World Trade Center health conditions, in particular, the lung conditions, the mental health conditions, in the past five years, those have gone up only about 25% or maybe 30%.

When it comes to cancer, it's gone from 25,000 in 2020 to almost 50,000 now. It's clearly that cancer is clearly becoming the most important and numerous problem that's facing survivors and responders from 9/11, and a real important component of the World Trade Center Health Program. We'll get also, I hope, Brian, into the excellent care that people who have developed cancer and are in the health program get because that's an important part of the story.

Brian Lehrer: You can talk about that now if you want.

Dr. Steven Markowitz: Sure. A couple of years ago, the group of people who run these centers around New York and elsewhere looked at the information, looked at data as the people in the program who had been treated for cancers, a variety of cancers. They compared how they had been treated under the health program at the various excellent cancer centers, mostly in the New York metropolitan area.

They looked at that group and how they fared after their treatment and compared those to people in New York State, same age, similar cancers, who were not in the World Trade Center Health Program. They found a truly significant improvement in survival and longevity of the people in the World Trade Center Health Program. This means that the level of care that they've been getting has been excellent and superior, in fact, to, in general, the care that people have gotten in New York State outside of the health program. It's a real credit to the health program.

Brian Lehrer: Here's our first text. Listener writes, "It's a very strange feeling to have been born in 2000 and have known for almost my entire life that my parents were first responders to 9/11, worked there for years after, and are going to suffer the consequences." Hopefully, they won't. It doesn't sound like from that text that they have at this point, but you were quoted in The Post article, saying, "We know that--" there was a New York Post article on those World Trade Center program cancer stats. You were quoted saying, "We know that the population is aging, so we can predict that the number of cancers is going to go up." How do you identify a 9/11-related cancer from one that an aging person might develop from other decades-old exposures or genetics or any other causes?

Dr. Steven Markowitz: Sure, great question. I think in terms of what people need to know in terms of the World Trade Center Health Program is that if they're enrolled in that program, either because they're responders or survivors who lived in the neighborhood, and they get one of the covered cancers, which is most cancers, it will be considered a World Trade Center cancer for the purposes of care. I understand that's a slightly different answer, Brian, to the question you're asking.

As people age and cancer occurs quite frequently, how do we actually know it was due to any particular cause, including World Trade Center exposures or not, and for the individual? We can't necessarily identify that. The approach that the World Trade Center Health Program takes is we're going to cover virtually all the cancers among people who are eligible. We're going to give them the benefit of the program and not focus on whether their particular cancer was caused by family history, was caused by exposures at Ground Zero, or any number of other exposures they might have had. Does that make sense, Brian?

Brian Lehrer: That does make sense. Well, who are the people being killed or made sick? Are they largely people who worked in the months after the attack on what was called at the time "The Pile." I think some of the material was also moved to the Fresh Kills Landfill site on Staten Island. People got exposed there, or largely first responders to 9/11, again as the text or sites that his parents were, meaning they were down there on the day, I guess.

Dr. Steven Markowitz: Sure. The cancers are occurring among the people who worked at Ground Zero, the responders, and also Fresh Kill Landfill and the New York Medical Examiner's Office, and also, Brian, the people who worked around Ground Zero, the day laborers who cleaned up those skyscrapers that were badly damaged. That's the responder group that's included in the health program. Additionally, there's what's called the survivor group.

That's the group that lived near Ground Zero up until Houston Street. It's Houston Street and below, and a little bit into Brooklyn, Brooklyn Heights, and Dumbo, for a certain amount of time during the nine months that the site was open and worked on. Those are the two groups that have been eligible, and both groups are suffering cancer. Actually, proportionally, it seems there are more survivors with cancer in the WTC Health Program than responders, but there are many thousands of both types in the program at present.

Brian Lehrer: Sarah in Manhattan, you're on WNYC. Hi, Sarah, thank you for calling in.

Sarah: Hi, can you hear me?

Brian Lehrer: I can hear you.

Sarah: Oh, wow, great. Yes, so my mother worked at 100 Church Street. She was a lawyer for the Health and Hospitals Corporation. On that horrible day, she got out of the office. She walked over the Brooklyn Bridge and continued walking through the streets of Brooklyn till my dad was able to pick her up. Then they had an alternate office location for a few months, but then she was back at 100 Church Street and worked there for the next several years.

For those initial months, she was exposed to whatever was still in the air down there. It's really emotional for me still to this day. I was in college at the time at Barnard, so on the Upper West Side. I just remember being woken up that morning by phone calls from her, saying what was going on and that she was okay, but she was walking over the bridge, whatever. I live-

Brian Lehrer: How quickly--

Sarah: -on 101st in Riverside right now, and they are doing all of the firemen-- at the firemen's memorial are there with all the bagpipes. I can hear them. It's just very emotional.

Brian Lehrer: How long did you say it was before your mother went back to work on Church Street?

Sarah: I don't know exactly, but it was probably, I think, in a month or two months after, I think, but it was soon enough after.

Brian Lehrer: Dr. Markowitz, did you want to ask the caller something?

Dr. Steven Markowitz: Sure. Well, I would just say that she may well be eligible for the World Trade Center Health Program, particularly if she develops one of the conditions. You can easily find the eligibility criteria on their website. I may have met your mother because I was in Brooklyn Heights on the Promenade when the towers fell in Brooklyn. I might have actually met her in the day, but in any event--

[crosstalk]

Sarah: Yes, so she was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in January of 2020. She is doing well on medications, but she had to undergo chemotherapy in the height of COVID. That was one of the scariest things ever to have her having to schlep into Manhattan to NYU Langone for chemotherapy treatments when the world was shut down and nobody was going outside. She was immunocompromised, getting chemotherapy, and having to do it all during COVID.

Brian Lehrer: Sarah, I'm sorry for all of that. I'm glad, in honor of your mom, that you said all of that out loud on the radio on the September 11th. Thank you very much. What about that category of people, which, as it happens, would include me, people who worked a few blocks from the World Trade Center, where WNYC was at the time. We got evacuated, the people from my show, at least for-- and a lot of the station, but not everybody. Some people just stayed down there working in the municipal building just a few blocks away. Of course, yes, we went back after a few weeks. So many people in so many offices, like her mother working at a place on Church Street, had that gap of a month or two. Are people in those categories getting 9/11-related illnesses?

Dr. Steven Markowitz: Well, I can tell you that people in those categories are absolutely eligible for the World Trade Center Health Program. Their related health conditions, cancer, chronic respiratory disease, some certain mental health concerns are covered by the health program. There are a certain number of days you need to work there or be down there during those nine months between September and the following June. It's not very many days, Brian. I think there are large numbers of people actually looking into this. Last year, there were 10,000 new enrollees in the program. The majority of them were survivors. They were people who lived or worked down there, not at Ground Zero, but around Ground Zero.

Brian Lehrer: Listener texts, "I was very young when 9/11 happened, but, of course, remember it. I've read that undocumented workers made up a large part of the cleanup workforce and had no access to these health programs. Feels particularly important to talk about, given the current crackdown on immigrant workers, which arises from an enforcement system born after 9/11." Dr. Markowitz, I believe one of your specialties is treating and studying immigrant-related health conditions, immigrant worker health conditions in particular. Do I have that right?

Dr. Steven Markowitz: Yes. At Commoner Center at CUNY, we've done studies on all kinds of immigrant workers, but specifically 9/11. We set up a mobile medical unit, Park Place in Broadway, a block and a half from Ground Zero, in January 2022, because we had heard about this problem, mostly Latino day laborers. We opened the door, and we subsequently examined over 400 day laborers over the next month or so. They had the same kinds of problems that the firefighters were complaining of. The WTC cough and the construction workers who were down at Ground Zero. They have been included in the World Trade Center Health Program. Many of them are getting care under that program to the great credit really of the program and the government.

Brian Lehrer: We'll continue in a minute with Dr. Markowitz and your stories right after this.

[MUSIC]

Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC as we continue to devote the first segment of the program today to people who have been sickened or died in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attack. The latest numbers from the World Trade Center Health Program are that 48,579 people have gotten what they consider to be 9/11 cancers. We're inviting your stories about yourself or your loved ones in this context, and talking to our guest, Dr. Steven Markowitz, an MD and DrPH.

He's an occupational medicine physician, internist, and epidemiologist who directs the Barry Commoner Center for Health and the Environment at CUNY. He's conducted research in the areas of World Trade Center health, among many other things. Let's hear another of your stories. Here's James in Sunnyside. James, you're on WNYC. Thank you for calling in.

James: Hi. Thank you. I just want to say I worked down in the World Trade Center in that whole area district in the years leading up to that with two of my brothers. One of them passed away just last week, like eight days ago, from a cancer that I believe they couldn't really identify. It was a bone cancer. His care team just really couldn't identify what it was. We worked down there after 9/11 from the Thursday afterward.

There were so many entities down there that wanted to get back up and running like construction projects that were underway. Once they got clearance to get back through the site, they just had us back there working to get things up and running before they realized that it wasn't going to happen. Two of my brothers, we never actually got into the program. The more time it goes away, it just seems harder to prove that we were there, even with the evidence.

The cancer that my brother had was just so quick. He was diagnosed just between Father's Day and July 4th this year. He demised with less than two months of this. I just want to say to honor him, we would go down there through the site. I worked at the American Express buildings. We worked on Wall Street. We put a window film on top of the glass at the Winter Garden after the windows were restored.

Brian Lehrer: Wow.

James: To get there, we had to walk through, not through what they call "The Pile," but around the site and underneath where that footbridge is. We had to walk through there every day. At the time, we were just rushing to get things back together there. It just seems like it was so truly dangerous. In terms of getting back into the program seems so limited.

Brian Lehrer: I want to ask Dr. Markowitz. It's a question about how dangerous it was at that time compared to how dangerous people were told it was. I want to say I'm glad that you got the opportunity here to pay tribute to your father out loud on the air. I don't know if this is any comfort to you or anything that you are already involved with or want to be involved with, but there's the WTC, World Trade Center Health Registry, that anyone who is down there can enter. Once you're in there, if anything comes to pass with someone's help, you can make a claim to the 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund. There are a lot of lawyers out there who can help navigate. I don't know if you knew about that or if that's any help, but I thought I would pass that. Oh, your brother? I think I said your father.

James: Yes, it's my brother, yes.

Brian Lehrer: I thought I would pass that along. Go ahead. You want to say his name?

James: Thank you.

Brian Lehrer: What was his name?

James: His name is Lee Arnold.

Dr. Steven Markowitz: If I may add something. I'm sorry, what's happened to your family. The family may be eligible for the WTC compensation fund because survivors are eligible for that. Let me get back to the point of rushing to make things normal back down there. It was an enormous mistake. There was false reassurance that the air was safe to breathe, well-documented who made those comments. Here's the basic problem because something like this will happen again. How we really need to approach this is through very simple kind of approach, which is, "when uncertain, protect," when we don't know what the effects, what the risks might be, err on the side of protecting people so that we can prevent people from getting sick.

Brian Lehrer: Dr. Markowitz, let me jump in, and I'll let you finish that thought in a minute. Right now, we want to rejoin the ceremony at the Trade Center as they approach the 10:28 moment of silence for when the North Tower collapsed, as they will pause the reading of the names of the dead.

Speaker 4: -Jagoda.

Speaker 5: Yudhvir S. Jain.

Speaker 4: Maria Jakubiak.

Speaker 5: Robert Adrien Jalbert.

Speaker 4: Ernest James.

[pause 00:26:57]

[bell tolls]

[pause 00:27:25]

Speaker 5: Gricelda E. James.

Speaker 4: Mark Steven Jardim.

Speaker 5: Amy Nicole Jarret.

Speaker 4: Muhammadou Jawara.

Speaker 5: Francois Jean-Pierre.

Speaker 4: Maxima Jean-Pierre.

Speaker 5: Paul Edward Jeffers.

Speaker 4: John Charles Jenkins.

Speaker 5: My brother, Thomas Harold Bowden, Jr. Tommy, I can't believe that you've been gone for 24 years. Sometimes it feels like a whole lifetime ago, and sometimes the memories are as fresh and painful as if it all just happened yesterday. What I do know is that you made a tremendous impact on so many people while you were here and that your memory lives on through the lives of the people that you touched. We miss you and we love you.

Speaker 4: My godfather and uncle, Richard S. Gabrielle, we love you. We miss you. Your spirit lives on.

Brian Lehrer: As they continue with the reading of the names, it's so New York, how diverse that little stretch even of the list of the names was, right? We continue with Dr. Steven Markowitz and more of your individual stories. Dr. Markowitz, a Doctor of Public Health in addition to an MD and an expert on World Trade Center health.

I want to let you finish your thought that you started before we cut into the ceremony. I also want to ask you about that very specifically if you blame the EPA administrator at the time, the former New Jersey governor, Christie Todd Whitman, who had been appointed by President Bush to lead the EPA, who a lot of people are angry at for personally saying that the air was safe to breathe pretty quickly to go back downtown.

Dr. Steven Markowitz: Well, hers was the most prominent voice saying that at the time, yes, that the air was safe, and both for people who lived and worked down there as well, to a lesser extent, at Ground Zero. The mistake was that we didn't know the risks, and air was not safe, but we didn't know the kind of things that have since happened and that we've since learned in the last 20-odd years.

The real approach has to be, "when uncertain, protect," which is that when we don't know the risks, let's be frank about it, and let's protect people. If we err on the side of protection, well, people will only be better off. If we make the other mistake, then what will happen is what we've seen happen with 145,000 people enrolled in a health program and thousands of additional deaths that could have been prevented.

Brian Lehrer: Listener writes, regarding the observation that you made just before we heard that 10:28 moment of silence, that when in doubt, protect. Listener writes, "It was so obvious when I saw those firefighters stopping wearing their protective equipment and masks. I turned to my husband and said, 'Mark my words, there's going to be a lot of lawsuits.' They should never have been allowed to remove their protective equipment. It was so predictable. A child could see it," writes one listener. Gordon in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hi, Gordon. Thank you for calling in.

Gordon: Sure. I worked about two blocks away from the World Trade Center. I have since qualified, unfortunately, for the health program. Approximately, one-tenth of the people I work with, in fact, are apparently part of the program. We went back to work. I believe it was 10 or 11 days after 9/11. I know for sure, we were back within two weeks because I have air sampling that was done in our office, which was sampling that was done to check for asbestos.

I particularly have to agree with what Dr. Markowitz said, which was we didn't understand the risks. We knew about asbestos. We knew about PCBs, but all the other chemicals that were in the air, we just didn't really know about. Ironically, I worked at the Environmental Protection Bureau of the Attorney General's Office. We were back very, very quickly. I think mostly because it was felt that that was the patriotic thing to do.

Brian Lehrer: Gordon, thank you very much. I don't know how you cope. How do you cope?

Gordon: Well, fortunately, the cancer was detected earlier with me. I believe that it hasn't recurred. With other people, at least one person got an extraordinarily rare cancer. He's in good shape, too. Other people are more long-term. You do what you can. I want to make clear that I don't blame people for the exposures that people went through. We just didn't know. It was unclear. I think it was very good that we now have a program that recognizes the dangers of the exposure to various toxic chemicals. Dr. Markowitz, in particular, has been a pioneer in that area and deserves considerable praise.

Brian Lehrer: Gordon, thank you very much for your call.

Dr. Steven Markowitz: Brian, Brian, Brian, just--

Brian Lehrer: Yes, please, go ahead.

Dr. Steven Markowitz: One of the things about the current world traits in our health program is that it tries to detect cancers and other diseases early. It provides early detection screening tests for a variety of cancers and for other conditions. For the people out there who are not enrolled in the program, this is another reason to be enrolled because you have a program that focuses on the risks that you have, the disease that you're at risk for, and tries to make sure that they detect it early through the best early-detection methods.

Brian Lehrer: On Christie Whitman, listener writes, "No, she did not personally say it. Her official declaration was the legal mechanism that prompted businesses to reopen then. I worked at one," writes a listener. I'm not sure what the distinction is between personally saying it, I guess, in words, and her office making an official declaration to allow businesses to reopen at that time, but that's a distinction as far as it goes. As we said, Dr. Markowitz, you're affiliated with the 9/11 Health Watch.

Their "About" page says, "Even with the passage of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act in 2010 and the law's reauthorization in 2015 and 2019, there is still much that needs to be done to ensure that the federal government's proper and continued long-term commitment to the health and well-being of 9/11 responders, survivors, and their families." It says, "The act provides for monitoring, medical treatment, and compensation for those exposed to and made sick by toxic exposures that resulted from 9/11. We need to make sure the programs the act created live up to their promises." Can you say anything about how well or not you think it is living up to that promise right now?

Dr. Steven Markowitz: Sure. First of all, let me just say that the program is an excellent program. The clinical centers, the people who administer the program, have been doing a great job, but certain things need to be done. First of all, the coffers that fund this program need to be refilled to the tune of, unfortunately, several billion dollars in the next year or two in order to keep the program going beyond 2027 and 2028, but that's not my area, really.

There are certain things that have happened in the program this year, this calendar year, since January 20th, that are easily correctable by the Health and Human Services, which is, for instance, the World Trade Center staff, which used to be located in NIOSH, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. When the administration took NIOSH apart and eliminated it, they moved over the World Trade Center Health Program to the CDC, but did not fully restore the staff.

The staff is about 80-plus people that run this very large program. That staff made up of a variety of different skills that are absolutely critical for the program. They need additional staff. Prior to January of 2025, they were due to get a 30% increase in staff. Instead, they got a cut. That's something that can be easily reversed. Secondly, the way that new conditions are looked at, health conditions are looked at by the program, and whether they should be added, the way that cancer was added in 2012 or so.

There are certain conditions that are under the microscope, so to speak, to see whether they should be added, including heart disease, including autoimmune disorders, including certain cognitive disorders. That's called a petition process. The remaining people who administer the World Trade Center Health Program have to examine these petitions and move on them. That's not being done in part because I think of the staffing shortage and the scientific shortage of that program. Those petitions need to move in order to be fair to people.

Third, there's a research component that was part of the Zadroga Act in 2010 that funds ongoing research for the World Trade Center Health Program. It's critically important because it tells us how we're doing, it tells us what the risks are, and it tells us what directions we should go in. For instance, that research funding funded the study, which demonstrated that the cancer care in the program is superior to the cancer care outside the program. That research funding has been stagnant. The pipeline is drying up.

The administration is not moving on funding additional new research. That is a big mistake, a mistake for the people who participate in the program, and it's a mistake for all of us who paid for the program. Thank you, Brian, by the way, for this time here. Lastly, I just want to say is that there seems to be a very odd communications blackout within the program where the various parties, the clinics, and the people who run the program, and the stakeholders, and the advisory committee aren't meeting, aren't talking to each other. That is not healthy for a program which is complex and needs really constant communication.

Brian Lehrer: Let me build on that by quoting from a Newsweek article called, 9/11 Health Program Cuts Could Hit Over 140,000 Americans. It says, "Concerns about the future of the World Trade Center Health Program began early in President Trump's second term as the federal government trimmed itself with budget cuts across myriad agencies, including some 1,300 employees of the CDC starting back in February."

It continues. "At the time, HHS Secretary Kennedy did not disclose how such dismissals would affect programs like this one," says the article. It says, "Bipartisan bills, both sponsored in February by Senator Gillibrand in the Senate," Democrat of New York, "and New York Republican Representative Andrew Garbarino in the House," Garbarino's from Long Island, for those of you who don't know, "have gone nowhere since their introduction." Do you have anything more than Newsweek did that's different from what you said previously about how the CDC cuts will affect the World Trade Center Health Program and those who depend on it specifically?

Dr. Steven Markowitz: No, I don't really have anything additional to add, except to say that on the specific issues that I mentioned, they are easily reversed by the CDC. They could easily hire additional staff, reinstate a petition process, the research pipeline, and allow just reasonable level of communications, and maintain the program in its previously excellent state.

Brian Lehrer: Let's conclude by letting one more listener tell his story. Richard in Metuchen, you're on WNYC. Hi, Richard, thank you for calling in.

Richard: Thanks for taking my call. Yes, so I worked for the New York City Housing Authority at 90 Church, which I had a front-row seat for the horror. Our building was damaged, and they moved us uptown, but we came back three years later. It took them seven years to empty the pit of all the debris. The trucks would come in from the West Side Highway, and they would come out right in front of my building. They didn't clean the tires. There was dust and debris from the pit swirling around my building constantly.

I walked through it every day for probably seven years. This is well after 9/11. In 2020, I had a quadruple bypass. Prior to that, I went to the hospital. They said I had all this scarring on my lungs, and they couldn't really say what it was from. Then I wound up going back a week later, two weeks later, rather, for the open heart surgery. I got a lot of issues there, which may or may not be due to all that dust. Our secretary lived at Smith Houses, which is in that dust plume. She died of cancer about five years after.

Brian Lehrer: Did you register yourself for the World Trade Center Health Program?

Richard: I think I did, but I didn't really follow up with it. [chuckles]

Brian Lehrer: Richard, thank you very much for your call and telling your story. We're going to let Richard's words be the last word and words in this September 11 segment today. We thank Dr. Steven Markowitz, MD and DrPH, Doctor of Public Health, an occupational medicine physician, internist, and epidemiologist, who directs the Barry Commoner Center for Health and the Environment at CUNY, has conducted research in the area of World Trade Center health, among other things. Dr. Markowitz, thank you very much.

Dr. Steven Markowitz: Thank you, Brian.

 

Copyright © 2025 New York Public Radio. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use at www.wnyc.org for further information.

New York Public Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline, often by contractors. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of New York Public Radio’s programming is the audio record.