There are dates on the calendar, and then there are dates that seem to live somewhere else; September 11th is one of them. Twenty-five years later, some people remember that morning in extraordinary detail, while others were not yet born. For thousands of people who were there, the responders, workers, residents and survivors, this isn’t just a date, a time, or a moment, it’s more. It lives on in their day-to-day life, and for many, the reminders are also the health story that continues to be part of their new reality.
This month when we remember the tragic attacks of 9/11, it is also a month that has many other health observances. You can’t quite miss the coincidence of September being a month we hold space for this day in our American History but also a month we bring awareness to many lung related health illnesses and suicide prevention month. Illnesses and continued lost lives, which have seemingly increased since the world changed that frightful morning.
For instance, September is also Pulmonary Fibrosis Awareness Month. When the World Trade Center towers collapsed, the resulting dust cloud was not simply dust. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), www.cdc.gov/wtc, it had asbestos, silica, metals, concrete, glass fibers, soot, lead and other hazardous substances. Fires continued at Ground Zero for months, creating added exposure to smoke and combustion products.
We have known for years that those exposures were harmful. But this week, as the 25th anniversary approaches, New York City released approximately 170,000 pages of previously withheld records concerning air quality and the city’s response following the attacks. The records include internal discussions about asbestos contamination and other hazards.
The most important question though, isn’t who said what 25 years ago, The most important question is, what happened to the people who breathed in that air? Pulmonary fibrosis is one answer.
This disease causes lung tissue to become scarred and stiff, making it increasingly difficult for the lungs to do their job. Research involving World Trade Center responders has found a
relationship between the intensity of dust exposure and pulmonary fibrosis. In a study of more than 19,000 responders, those with very high exposure had more than four times the risk of developing pulmonary fibrosis compared with those with low exposure. According to the CDC, interstitial lung disease, the broader family of conditions that includes pulmonary fibrosis, is now an officially covered condition of the World Trade Center Health Program. The program provides medical monitoring and treatment for certified WTC-related conditions.
However, as we know, lungs aren’t the only place where September 11 left a mark. Judith Markey, a clinical psychologist from Peacham, Vermont, volunteered with the Red Cross after the attacks and worked at the Pentagon with young soldiers recovering the remains of people killed there. In 2021, during an interview with Vermont Public, www.vermontpublic.org, she described her life since the attack and shared about what has stayed with her. “Every year in early September, I start to feel very cranky, sad,” she said. Markey said she can feel something tugging at her before she consciously remembers that the anniversary is approaching. “I can still see there faces.” There is something profound in that observation. Sometimes the mind remembers an event. Sometimes the body remembers it first.
Markey’s experience is only one Vermont story but there are many others. Vermont Air National Guard pilot Lt. Col. Barent Rogers was among the first pilots to enter the airspace over Ground Zero after the attacks, and CDC data show Vermont residents have been enrolled in the World Trade Center Health Program too. In the CDC’s state-level data, Vermont falls in the 50–99-member range. Those aren’t just numbers. They stand for people whose lives are intersected with September 11 in ways most of us will never fully know and they live in our communities.
The World Trade Center Health Program is still available to eligible responders and survivors. It covers a wide range of respiratory illnesses, cancers and mental health conditions, with certification determining whether an individual condition is related to the person’s 9/11 exposure. The program serves people across the country, not just those who live in New York. That matters because September can bring different things to different people. A diagnosis. A memory. A familiar sadness. A story someone has never told. A person who suddenly comes to mind.
Twenty-five years is a long time. It is also, clearly, not long enough to erase what happened or all that followed. Today, we can remember without needing to have the same memory. We can honor the people who were lost, the responders who ran toward danger, the people who spent months cleaning up what remained, and those who have lived with physical or emotional consequences ever since.
We can also remember something quieter: health is not always measured by what is happening today. Sometimes it carries the imprint of something that happened years ago. Today, September 11th, perhaps we can make a little more room for the people who still carry that day. The ones who carry it in their lungs, in their memories, in their grief, and in their stories.
This month is a call to pause. We pause to remember that day 25 years ago that changed this country and this world. We are called to pause and learn about so many lung diseases and how precious each breath matters. We are called to pause and learn and speak up about death by suicide, which is becoming all too common in our communities. This month we pause and this month we remember.