Victim Compensation Fund

After the terrorist attacks on 9/11, rescue teams searched for survivors amidst millions of tons of debris – the wreckage of the World Trade Center. To help these teams locate survivors and, ultimately, identify victims, thousands of union construction workers worked around the clock at Ground Zero. These ironworkers, carpenters, steamfitters, boilermakers, machinists, cement and […]

As we celebrate Labor Day and honor the anniversary of 9/11, we should remember that the story of the 9/11 community has been defined by the contributions of labor unions and their members. There were the first responders who, arriving within seconds of the attack, risked and too often lost their lives helping thousands of […]

September is Thyroid Cancer Awareness Month. There were nearly half a million first responders and survivors working, living, and studying in Lower Manhattan on and after 9/11 who have a higher risk of developing respiratory illness and 68 different types of cancer linked to the WTC toxins, including thyroid cancer. Barasch & McGarry represents nearly […]

A recent study published in Blood Cancer Journal found a higher risk of multiple myeloma precursor disease in FDNY firefighters who were exposed to Ground Zero toxins at the World Trade Center site on and after 9/11. The firefighters included in the study had nearly double – 180% – the normal risk of developing myeloma […]

A recent study in the medical journal Nature Medicine found that FDNY firefighters who worked at the World Trade Center site on and after 9/11 have an increased risk of all types of cancer, with a particularly elevated incidence of prostate, thyroid, and tonsil cancer, as well as melanoma. For thyroid cancer, for example, the […]

Thousands of emergency medical responders were deployed to Lower Manhattan on 9/11 and in the weeks and months that followed, to help people injured in the attack and participate in search-and-rescue and recovery operations. Yet even as these responders, members of FDNY EMS Local 2507 and DC 37 Local 3621, were saving lives, their own […]