BRATTLEBORO, Vt. (WCAX) – When the Twin Towers fell in New York City 23 years ago on Sept. 11, our country’s first responders braved the rubble for rescue and recovery missions. Today, they are getting sick and dying at alarming rates from their exposure on that infamous day.
Brattleboro Police Chief Norma Hardy was working for the Port Authority in New York City when two planes crashed into the Twin Towers. She was a part of the rescue and recovery effort on ground zero from September to around November. That’s when she got sick.
“No one thought of masks at that first time, because everybody’s initial response was to run to the scene and to try to just help people and save people,” Hardy said.
Hardy recovered from that immediate scare, but she says she still has 9/11-related medical problems, but out of her team, she finds herself lucky.
“As far as I’m concerned, I’m blessed and I’m healthy. I do have friends of mine that have not been so fortunate,” Hardy said.
Six of Hardy’s friends have passed in the last three years. She believes all of them were related to the fall of the World Trade Center.
“More people have died from the exposure to the toxic chemicals released during 9/11 than actually did during the attacks,” said Brian Cunniff, an assistant professor in the Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Department at the Larner College of Medicine.
Right now, Cunnuff is developing a drug to treat a rare form of cancer, mesothelioma, which is associated with asbestos exposure.
“The unfortunate events of 9/11 led to the distribution of around 2,000 tons of asbestos fibers,” he said.
“You walk into a dusty room, you sneeze, you get uncomfortable, maybe you cough a little, just imagine that with the entire contents of two collapsed buildings coming into your face,” said Dr. Michael Crane, the medical director of the World Trade Center Health Program at Mount Sinai.
It was a “witch’s brew” of carcinogens, fibers and particles. Mount Sinai is the hospital where Chief Hardy was screened after the attack.
“There’s a whole list of World Trade Center-related conditions that come from the experience,” Dr. Crane said.
Musculoskeletal disorders, airway and digestive disorders, all different types of cancers and mental health conditions, specifically PTSD.
“Finding a part of a hand clutching a baby picture, these are searing images for rescuers,” Crane said.
And yet they went back day after day.
Back in Brattleboro, Hardy has no regrets about the work she did on ground zero. She hangs pictures of her Port Authority team on the wall, honoring and remembering them.
“Men and women that have you know, made the ultimate sacrifice, given everything or are suffering from these illnesses,” she said. “Now that I’m learning, like every other day, that someone else is suffering from an illness from 9/11, these are the real heroes.”