The full effects of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S. and the American people are still not known, according to a new report by New York Post published on Thursday.
At least 15 men who spent time near Ground Zero that day and in the following months have been diagnosed with breast cancer. It’s also possible many more men have been affected because the data is based on the client list of a law firm that specializes in 9/11 health cases. In general, less than one percent of all breast cancer patients are men.
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Speaking to the post, two of the men said they had strong feelings that their conditions were linked to 9/11.
The first, Jeff Flynn, 65, didn’t even know it was possible for men to get breast cancer. He only went to the doctor for a biopsy because his wife noticed that his nipple looked like it was “inverting” during a vacation in Florida. He was diagnosed with stage-4 breast cancer, which he’s currently treating with hormone shots and a drug called iBrance.
“I do feel like my breast cancer was related to exposure to 9/11 toxins,” he said to The Post. “There’s no history of breast cancer in my family … I spent months breathing that crap in. You can wind up with any cancer from being down there.”
At the time of the attacks, Flynn’s employer, a data storage company, had assigned him to their client Goldman Sachs on Maiden Lane, less than half a mile from Ground Zero. He continued to work in the area afterward helping Goldman and other firms get running again.
John Mormando, 51, who’s currently undergoing chemotherapy for his breast cancer, expressed a similar point of view. “There is a very strong possibility this is linked to 9/11,” he said. “There’s not a history of cancer in my family.” Mormando is a commodities broker whose office was at the Mercantile Exchange, slightly more than half a mile north, until 2007.
Another patient, Leon Silverstein, 89, who had a double mastectomy, told The Post, “I was a healthy man before.” Silverstein has lived in the Battery Park neighborhood, a six-minute walk from the 9/11 Memorial, for 30 years.
According to USA Today, the deaths in the aftermath of 9/11 will soon pass the number of people killed during the attacks. More than 10,000 first responders and others who were nearby the attacks have been diagnosed with cancer from the toxins and more than 2,000 people have from illnesses caused by 9/11. The Fire Department of New York chief, who led the first responder efforts, died in June from cancer, The Hill reported at the time.
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