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New 9/11 first responder study highlights risk of leukemia

Posted at 7:02 PM, Jan 16, 2020
and last updated 2020-01-16 19:02:44-05

A new study found 9/11 first responders may face a heightened risk of developing leukemia, nearly two decades after the terror attacks.

Moshe Shapiro is a biostatistician with the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. His team studied 29,000 members of the World Trade Center Health Program, which consists of police officers and other recovery workers.

“Leukemia, we found a 41% increase in incidence compared to the general population,” Shapiro told PIX11.

Researchers have long known about the substances recovery workers were exposed to in the dust and debris. Shapiro said this latest study shows illnesses like leukemia may continue to develop long after exposure.

This article was written by Ayana Harry for WPIX .