25 years ago today, the Twin Towers of New York City’s World Trade Center were destroyed in the horrifying terrorist attack of September 11, 2001. Nearly 3,000 people were killed in the attack itself, but even among the survivors, adverse health effects are still being felt today.
The collapse of the towers covered much of Lower Manhattan in toxic dust, which included hundreds of tons of asbestos used in the towers’ construction. Asbestos is the only known cause of the deadly cancer known as mesothelioma, and in just a few moments, thousands of people in the United States’ largest city were potentially exposed.
Over two decades later, mesothelioma cases in 9/11 survivors are starting to manifest, due to the disease’s typically long latency period. Recent research and disclosures are helping us start to understand the full scope of the problem, as America remembers the victims of the attacks and attempts to provide support to the survivors.
Health Effects on 9/11 Survivors
Construction on the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center began in 1966, during a time when asbestos was still commonly in use for insulation purposes. It is estimated that up to 400 tons of asbestos was used to construct the World Trade Center. Asbestos use for insulation became prohibited in New York City during the towers’ construction, and although some asbestos from the towers’ structure was removed over the coming decades, hundreds of tons still remained by September 11, 2001.
The September 11 attacks and the collapse of the towers covered a large section of Manhattan in contaminated toxic dust that has led to a number of health problems from those caught nearby. EPA monitoring detected asbestos in the aftermath of the attacks. Although most outdoor air samples were below the benchmarks EPA was using at the time, some samples exceeded them, and asbestos was also detected in dust and contaminated indoor environments.
By 2021, 20 years after the attack, the September 11 Victim Compensation Fund estimated that more people have died from 9/11-related illnesses than died in the attack themselves.
These health issues vary from chronic respiratory diseases to various forms of cancer, as asbestos was not the only carcinogenic material used in the Twin Towers’ construction. But 25 years after the September 11 attack, we still have yet to see the full toll that mesothelioma may take on the survivors.
The main reason for that is because mesothelioma has a particularly long latency period, usually taking decades after a person’s exposure for symptoms to finally develop. It has now been long enough that we are starting to see some of these mesothelioma cases develop in 9/11 survivors, but it will be a number of years yet before we see the bigger picture.
Mesothelioma Cases Linked to 9/11
One illuminating study into 9/11-linked mesothelioma cases was published in 2024 by researchers from the New York University Grossman School of Medicine, and described four cases of mesothelioma observed in 9/11 survivors being treated at the World Trade Center Environmental Health Center.
These cases were described as of July 1, 2023, meaning that they still qualified as early cases of mesothelioma linked to the attack. Of the four patients – three men and one woman – two had died by the time the report was published.
The study described two cases of pleural mesothelioma and two of peritoneal mesothelioma. All of the patients lived or worked in lower Manhattan, not in the towers themselves but in the greater vicinity, and reported exposure to dust from the towers’ collapse.
Although four patients is a small sample to draw from, the researchers identified some interesting threads to examine as the phenomenon of 9/11-linked mesothelioma develops. The fact that 50% of the mesothelioma cases are peritoneal piques the interest, as peritoneal mesothelioma is generally much rarer than pleural mesothelioma and has been associated with more acute asbestos exposure.
In addition, two of the patients presented at relatively young ages – one was diagnosed at 38, one at 57 – and all had relatively short latency periods, raising questions about whether such trends may be sustained in the future.
The Future of 9/11-Linked Mesothelioma
Mesothelioma cases linked to the September 11 attacks will continue to be examined as the years pass on, and many more are almost certain to be diagnosed as we approach the median latency period for mesothelioma symptoms to manifest.
To this day, the health effects on breathing dust from the World Trade Center are still being studied. In fact, the New York Times published a report earlier this week examining air quality reports and contamination records that had been kept in a city office and not discovered for over two decades.
These reports indicated that asbestos was still being found in dust samples across Lower Manhattan upwards of 10 months after the attack, at distances of up to a half-mile away from Ground Zero.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani responded to the report by directing his administration to release these records to the public through an online portal. These records could indicate that the problem of 9/11-linked mesothelioma might end up being more widespread than expected in the coming years, and further emphasize the need to keep track of this phenomenon and support the survivors.
Sources & Author
- Mesothelioma Cases in the World Trade Center Survivors. National Library of Medicine. Retrieved from https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11578103/. Accessed on 09/09/2026.
- Mesothelioma Awareness Day: Asbestos Exposure Continues to Impact 9/11 Rescue and Recovery Workers. 9/11 Memorial & Museum. Retrieved from https://www.911memorial.org/connect/blog/mesothelioma-awareness-day-asbestos-exposure-continues-impact-911-rescue-and-recovery. Accessed on 09/09/2026.
- More People Died of 9/11-Related Illnesses Than in the Initial Attack: Report. Newsweek. Retrieved from https://www.newsweek.com/more-people-died-9-11-related-illnesses-initial-attack-report-1626817. Accessed on 09/09/2026.
- After 9/11, Documents Suggest New Yorkers Were Misled About Air Quality. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/07/nyregion/sept-11-air-quality-cancer.html. Accessed on 09/09/2026.
