Pair of Studies Link World Trade Center Toxins to Mental Decline
A new medical study finds that people with significant exposure to the debris cloud unleashed by the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 face a dramatically increased risk of early onset dementia. This data echoes the results of a prior analysis, which documented a similar pattern related to cognitive decline.
The first study, published by the Journal of the American Medical Association on June 12, finds that “individuals who served in rescue operations following the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center have poorer brain health than expected.” Since 2014, this study has tracked more than 5,000 responders who were in their late 20s and early 30s in autumn 2001, and have now reached a median age of 53. Among this population, the study identified 228 cases of dementia, which is characterized as “early onset” in anybody younger than age 65. For context, the rate of early onset dementia among the entire U.S. population of approximately 12 people out of every 10,000, or slightly more than one-one hundredth of one percent.
Within this group studied, those who experienced little or no exposure to World Trade Center debris have nearly the same (very low) risk of early onset dementia as the population at large. But even those with “mild” exposure have 12 times the risk of the population as a whole to suffer from the disorder, and those with “severe” exposure are more than 40 times likelier to be diagnosed.
Another study, released in 2022, discerned a corresponding risk among September 11 “survivors,” the label denoting residents, students, and workers near the location of the attacks. This analysis, published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, focused on a subset of 480 survivors who had requested mental health services.
Among this group, researchers found that 59 percent of subjects had test results, “consistent with probable cognitive impairment.” (“Cognitive impairment” is a broader diagnostic spectrum that includes both dementia, its more extreme form, and “mild cognitive impairment,” a less severe manifestation.)
The second analysis noted, “there is a lack of in-depth, systematic studies about the cognitive status of World Trade Center survivors,” and “studies of community members in the WTC Health Registry report self-reported confusion or memory loss associated with cognitive reserve and mental health conditions.”
The same study acknowledged that some survivors may have experienced even more dangerous exposure than first responders, because “local community members had potential for substantial acute dust inhalation from the massive clouds created as the WTC buildings collapsed, as well as chronic inhalation and topical exposure from re-suspended dust and fumes from the fires that burned for months.
A cohort mostly overlooked by both studies (which focused on test subjects in their 50s) is survivors who were young children in September 2001. For this group, even if signs of cognitive impairment or dementia do not emerge until the middle of this century, they would still qualify as “early.”
Cognitive impairment and dementia are not covered by the World Trade Center Health Program or the September 11 Victims Compensation Fund, which means these conditions are not eligible for the government help currently extended to people suffering from more than 100 other illnesses linked to World Trade Center toxins.