By Anemona Hartocollis
The New York Times Blogs
Patients could be eligible for some of the $4.3 billion in compensation for illnesses linked to the dust, smoke and fumes of the collapsing World Trade Center, a federal official confirmed.
Fifty cancers will be officially added to the list of sicknesses covered by a $4.3 billion fund set up to treat and compensate people exposed to the dust, smoke and fumes of the collapsing World Trade Center, the federal administrator of the World Trade Center Health Program said Monday.
The administrator, Dr. John Howard, recommended in Junethat the cancers be approved but had to wait for a period of public comment first. The new rule will be published Wednesday in The Federal Register and will take effect 30 days after that.
At that point, cancer patients may go to several federally designated World Trade Center health programs, including those at the Mount Sinai Medical Center and the Bellevue Hospital Center in Manhattan, to begin the process of having their cancers certified as World Trade Center-related. They would then be eligible for publicly financed cancer treatment at those centers if it is not covered by their insurance.
Cancer patients will also be able to apply for financial compensation from the Sept. 11 Victim Compensation Fund. The amount of compensation will depend on the severity of the illness and the duration of exposure.
Dr. Howard’s cancer ruling is based on a New York Fire Department study linking exposure at ground zero to cancer among firefighters, and on the recommendations of an advisory committee that found that the conflagration had released known or suspected carcinogens.
Dr. Howard has noted that because cancer takes so long to develop, it is still early to have conclusive proof of a link between Sept. 11 and cancer. But advocates of recognizing cancer as a 9/11 illness argued that it would be unfair to people who were sick to wait 20 or 30 years for such proof, and he indicated in his written report that he agreed.
More cancers could yet be added. in a statement Monday, Senators Kirsten E. Gillibrand and Charles E. Schumer of New York said: “Two more peer-reviewed scientific studies are also expected to be released which will be reviewed to determine whether additional cancers should be added to the list.”
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said Dr. Howard’s decision would “continue to ensure that those who have become ill due to the heinous attacks on 9/11 get the medical care they need and deserve.”