9/11 Cancer Study Gives No Definitive Answer on Role of Debris

The results of the largest study yet to explore the link between 9/11 debris and cancer are in, and they’re frustratingly vague. Researchers with New York’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene looked at 55,700 people who had been exposed to the debris, from recovery workers to landfill workers to residents and workers in Lower Manhattan, and found no overall increase in cancer rates. They did find “significantly higher” prevalence in the rates of three cancers — multiple myeloma, prostate, and thyroid, — but only in rescue and recovery workers, not in the rest of those exposed. Unfortunately for science (and maybe for those workers), their sample size is too small and the possibility too great that the frequent monitoring pushed up the cancer rate, to call that a conclusive finding, The New York Times explains.