In July, the bitter and protracted battle to compensate 9/11 first responders who fell ill in the aftermath of the attacks finally came to an end. President Trump signed a permanent extension of funding for the Victim Compensation Fund into law which will authorize $10.2 billion for the next 10 years along with additional funding until 2090 which will cover surviving 9/11 first responders for their entire lives. A grim new statistic highlights just how important it was to pass that legislation. Officials recently told ABC News that 241 NYPD officers have now died in the 18 years since the attacks - 10 times the number killed on 9/11 when 23 lost their lives.
Cancer and respiratory diseases are also continuing to devastate firefighters who responded to the attacks. In July, officials in New York reported that the 200th firefighter had died from a World Trade Center-related illness. His name was Richard Driscoll and he served in the FDNY for 32 years, being cited for bravery five times before he retired from Engine 91 in East Harlem in 2002. At the time, Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro said that "it is almost incomprehensible that after losing 343 members on September 11, we have now had 200 more FDNY members die due to World Trade Center illness".
The Uniformed Firefighters Association of New York now lists 204 FDNY deaths due to 9/11 illnesses over the past 18 years. Even though cancer has exacted the highest toll on first responders over the years, recent research suggests that they have also have notably higher rates of cardiovascular disease. The research was published in the medical journal JAMA Network Open and it found that the first firefighters on the scene were 44% more likely to develop cardiovascular disease than those who arrived the next day.
*Click below to enlarge (charted by Statista)
First responder deaths on 9/11 and sicne then due to illness.
