9/11 Health Program will Cover 50 Types of Cancer

FILE - In this Oct. 11, 2001 file photo, firefighters make their way over the ruins and through clouds of smoke at the World Trade Center in New York. Many of the first responders and those who labored at the site in the months following the attacks suffer from a variety of respiratory ailments after working at the World Trade Center site. Nearly two years after President Obama signed the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act into law, about 60,000 responders and survivors continue to receive monitoring and treatment for their illnesses as part of the World Trade Center Health Program, one of the lawâs two components. (AP Photo/Stan Honda, Pool, File (AP)

NEW YORK – Democratic New York Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Charles Schumer, along with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), announced that the federal government will include about 50 types of cancer on the list of September 11 World Trade Center-related illnesses covered by a program to pay for health coverage.

NIOSH said last June it favored expanding the $4.3 billion health program to include cancer.

Scientists say there's little research to prove exposure to toxic dust from the destroyed twin towers caused even one kind of cancer. Questions about whether dust caused cancer were a reason Congress didn't include it in the initial list of covered illnesses.

But an advisory panel said it was plausible first responders and others who were exposed to the toxic dust might get cancer.

Based on reporting by the Associated Press.