THE ESSENTIAL
- On September 11, 2001, four Islamist suicide attacks were perpetrated on the same day in the United States.
- 2,977 people lost their lives there.
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9/11 firefighters have more cell mutations in their blood, increasing their risk of developing cancer, according to a new study.
The blood of 700 firefighters analyzed
When the two towers of the World Trade Center fell, huge quantities of dust, toxic gases and carcinogens were thrown into the air, forcing rescuers to breathe them in if they wanted to approach the rubble.
20 years after the tragedy, scientists at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC) wanted to dig deeper into its health impacts. Their study focused on more than 700 firefighters, two thirds of whom were present during the attack. All members of the cohort were of similar ages and lifestyles.
For more screening
After doing very extensive blood tests, the researchers discovered that a significantly higher proportion of firefighters who intervened at the scene of the tragedy had mutations in their cells, generally observed in smokers. “The mutations mainly affected the DNMT3A, TET2 genes and increased with age”, write the scientists in the journal Nature Medicine.
These results imply that the thousands of people present during the September 11 attacks and the rescuers who intervened on the spot must be subject to increased screening for potential cancer.
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