Longer Looks: The 20th Anniversary Of The 9/11 Terrorist Attacks

NBC News: 2 People Killed In World Trade Center On 9/11 Identified With DNA Ahead Of 20th Anniversary
Two people killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks were identified this week by authorities, providing some closure for the victims’ families who had waited nearly two decades for answers. Dorothy Morgan, of Hempstead, New York, and a man whose name was withheld at the request of his family are the 1,646th and 1,647th people whose remains have been identified through “ongoing DNA analysis,” according to a statement Tuesday from the New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. (Planas, 9/8)

The New York Times: 9/11 Victims Are Still Being Identified, 20 Years Later
For 20 years, the New York City Medical Examiner’s Office has quietly conducted the largest missing persons investigation ever undertaken in the nation — testing and retesting the 22,000 body parts painstakingly recovered from wreckage after the attacks. Scientists are still testing the vast inventory of unidentified remains for a genetic connection to the 1,106 victims — roughly 40 percent of the ground zero death toll — who are still without a match so that their families can reclaim the remains for a proper burial. (Kilgannon, 9/6)

The New York Times: Trying To Find Your Mother’s Remains From Ground Zero, 20 Years Later 
Last month, two detectives showed up at Nykiah Morgan’s Long Island home. Her son, Dante, called her while she was at work. “They’re here about Grandma,” he said. Nearly 20 years ago, Dorothy Morgan, Ms. Morgan’s mother, disappeared into the rubble of the collapsed towers, like most of the 2,753 ground zero victims on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. She was working as an insurance broker in the North Tower of the World Trade Center. With no remains, her daughter was never able to give her a proper burial. But now the detectives had arrived with news that the New York City Medical Examiner’s Office had just positively identified Dorothy Morgan through advanced DNA testing. (Kilgannon, 9/6)

Newsweek: More People Died Of 9/11-Related Illnesses Than In The Initial Attack: Report
The September 11 Victim Compensation Fund (VCF) released its "20th Anniversary Special Report" that reported it believes more people have died from 9/11-related illnesses than were lost in the initial 2001 attacks. Forty-eight percent have those who claimed compensation reported having cancer, and 20 percent of those with cancer were found to have an additional qualifying condition. Under the "Never Forget the Heroes" Act, the VCF provides funds to those who survived, lost a family member, responded, removed subsequent debris, or were near the exposure site on the day of the attacks. (Rouhandeh, 9/7)

The Wall Street Journal: Among 9/11 Survivors, Health Effects Linger 
Dana Nelson was sitting in English class on the ninth floor of Stuyvesant High School on Sept. 11, 2001, when the first plane hit the World Trade Center. Then 14 years old, she watched from the window of her classroom with her classmates. Like hundreds of thousands of others in Manhattan that day, she fled through a cloud of toxic dust and debris. A month later, she returned to class in that same building. “That smell. There’s nothing that matches it,” she said. “It is such a sense memory. It brings me right back there.”Ms. Nelson said she has paid for her quick return to school with her health. Now 34 years old, she has spent the last year undergoing surgery, chemotherapy and radiation for aggressive breast cancer. (Wernau, 9/6)

The Washington Post: The Mystery Of 9/11 First Responders And Dementia 
More than a decade after the twin towers fell, Ron Kirchner began forgetting things. Buckling his belt. Closing his car door. Once, while visiting a preschool class on the 13th anniversary of 9/11, he even neglected to wear his customary necktie and New York City Fire Department hat. “He was in a panic,” says his wife, Dawn. “He used to like to bring the kids something, like coloring books. And he couldn’t find anything. ”This was unlike Ron, who had always been devoted and dutiful. He frequently wrote Dawn love notes, hiding them around their house. He made time after work to play with his two children, Luke and Ava. He mopped the floors before going to bed, whistling while he pushed the handle. “He did it joyfully,” Dawn says. “Ronnie was a giver.” (Hurby, 8/30)

CBS Miami: Doctors Still Seeing New York First Responders For Mental Health Issues 
New patients who have never been treated are still coming in every week, according to Dr. Sandra Lowe, medical director of the World Trade Center Mental Health program at Mount Sinai in New York. “Most of them have post-traumatic stress disorder. But we also see individuals who have major depressive disorder, anxiety disorders,” she said. Dr. Lowe said 9/11 anniversary reactions are also common. “We started to hear about people having an exacerbation of their symptoms, like more nightmares, or feeling more on edge, ” said Dr. Lowe. (9/8)

The Scientist Magazine: Q&A: Health Of 9/11 First Responders 20 Years Later 
Almost immediately after the attacks, many first responders began to report health issues, including the so-called World Trade Center cough. And in the two decades since, scientists have documented a number of diseases and mental health disorders among those who helped in rescue and cleanup efforts in the months that followed. According to a recent report released by the Fire Department of the City of New York’s World Trade Center (WTC) Health Program, an initiative started in 2010 to monitor and treat those who responded to the tragedy, more than half of its participants have at least one certified medical condition that the disaster aggravated, contributed to, or caused. The Scientist spoke with Rachel Zeig-Owens, an epidemiologist at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, the director of epidemiology for the WTC Health Program, and a coauthor of the report. (Heidt, 9/7)

KHN: ‘Luckiest Man Alive’: Why 9/11 First Responders’ Outlooks May Improve Even As Physical Health Fails
Ray Pfeifer and Luis Alvarez’s names are on the federal 9/11 legislation that establishes benefits for first responders. Both men fought to make Congress pass it while they were dying of cancer — and they had another thing in common. In spite of it all, they were content. “I am the luckiest man alive,” Pfeifer, a former New York City firefighter, told me in 2017, just about two months before he died of cancer linked to his time working in the ruins of the World Trade Center. It was something he said often. (McAuliff, 9/10)

Fox News: 9/11 Toxic Exposure Triggers Cancer Battles 20 Years Later
After his exposure to toxic debris from the collapsed twin towers, Tom Wilson, a former NYPD sergeant on 9/11, recalled his eyes and throat burning. However, the exposure ultimately took a significant toll: severe sinusitis, gastrointestinal issues and an aggressive cancerous tumor on the tongue, among other adverse health effects. Wilson secured the Manhattan side of the Williamsburg Bridge on 9/11, conducted security around Ground Zero in the month following, was involved in rescue efforts, and among other assignments, searched rooftops in lower Manhattan for remains. He also combed through the Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island for hours at a time into April 2002, sifting and raking through debris for items like bone fragments, rings and personal belongings to bring victims' families closure. (Rivas, 9/9)

The Independent: Marcy Borders: The Tragic Story Of ‘Dust Lady’ And Other 9/11 Survivors Who Developed Fatal Health Problems 
Even among the million photographs taken on one of the most devastating days of the 21st century, it’s a picture possessed of unusual power. Just after the collapse of the World Trade Center’s South Tower, a woman staggers from the street into an office building, caked in dust. Her face is caught somewhere between blank shock and acute pain. From head to toe, she’s been powdered white by pulverised concrete and cement. (Naughtie, 9/8)

WXXI: 20 Years Later, Mohawk Ironworkers Reflect On Unique Connection To 9/11 
The health effects of working long hours breathing in toxic dust were impossible to avoid. In the beginning, most ironworkers didn’t have respirators, and used makeshift face coverings or went without. Ironworker Michael Mitchell said that in the first months, no one was certain about the possible health effects. "You look back," he said, "and you were walking in 2 feet of asbestos." (Williams-Bergen, 9/8)

The Washington Post: They Weren’t Born Yet When Their Dads Died On 9/11. The Loss Shaped Their Lives.
For the children who weren’t yet born when their fathers died in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks — more than 100, according to Tuesday’s Children, an organization that counsels them — their fathers exist only as a lifelong, heartbreaking absence. On the 20th anniversary of 9/11, here are four stories of children who entered the world after their fathers had already left. (Shammas and Rosenwald, 9/7)

USA Today: Did 9/11 Permanently Change Life In The US? More Americans Say So Than Ever Before
The sense among Americans that the Sept. 11 attacks permanently changed life in the USA has grown, not faded – as the 20th anniversary of 9/11 approaches and a new peril threatens the nation. In a USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll, those surveyed call the COVID-19 pandemic a more dangerous challenge to the country than the terrorist strikes in 2001. But by a wider margin than ever, 60%-38%, they say 9/11 changed Americans' lives forever.  (Page and Elbeshbishi, 9/2)

Everyday Health: How To Cope With 9/11 Anniversary Grief 
For many who survived or lost someone in the 9/11 attacks, the anniversary reignites memories of what they experienced that day, says the grief psychologist Heidi Horsley, PsyD, an adjunct assistant professor of social work at Columbia University in New York City, and the executive director and cofounder of Open to Hope, an organization for grief recovery. Dr. Horsley has counseled widows and children of firefighters who died in the New York City attacks. ... Here’s why she says anniversaries like 9/11 can reawaken grief, how you can cope, and when you should seek professional help. (Vogt, 9/8)

Axios: A 9/11 Every Two Days: The Toll Of COVID Deaths 
This weekend, we commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks which killed nearly 3,000 people. But we've lost track of the fact that at least that many will die of COVID-19 within the span of two days. 9/11 was a shocking attack that sparked massive domestic foreign policy changes and conflict in two countries. While the pandemic has certainly led to enormous policy and lifestyle changes, the daily drumbeat of hundreds of COVID deaths in America isn't garnering the attention it once did. (Reed, 9/10)

Stat: Covid-19 Trauma Complicates The 9/11 'Anniversary Effect' 
Trauma caused by violence or tragic events can have a huge impact on individuals’ lives. And though their responses to trauma may fade away, it can reemerge or be heightened by anniversaries. That the 20th anniversary of the horrific attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, is taking place amid the ongoing collective tragedy of the Covid-19 pandemic is bound to make this year’s remembrances of 9/11 extra difficult for some Americans. (Ken Yeager, 9/10)

Doctors describe treating patients from the Pentagon —

WJLA: For Two Young Doctors Working At Virginia Hospital, 9/11 Was A 'Test Of Tests' 
For two young physicians, a quiet Tuesday morning that turned into an attack on the United States, shaped what kind of doctors they would become over the next 20 years. Virginia Hospital Center’s emergency department on the morning of September 11, 2001, was quiet. ... “I had been working at Virginia Hospital Center for about six weeks before 9/11,” Dr. Peter Liu told 7News Reporter Victoria Sanchez. “I just got out of residency, I was a new grad and this was a test of tests.” (Sanchez, 9/6)

WJLA: Doctor Who Treated 9/11 Patients After Plane Crashed Into Pentagon Shares Harrowing Story
When American Airlines flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon, Dr. Veena Railan was there carrying out her daily duties as a physician. 7News reporter Kellye Lynn has this rare interview with the doctor who cared for many of the injured on that horrific day. ... "As I picked up the radio there was a lot of crackling and I heard requests for crash carts for burn victims." Railan said. "It surprised me, why do we have burn victims?" (Lynn, 9/8)

And environmental concerns trouble the Flight 93 Memorial in Pennsylvania —

The Allegheny Front: Twenty Years After Flight 93 Crashed, The Living Memorial Faces Both Old And New Threats 
Today, the Flight 93 National Memorial in Somerset County is peaceful. A grassy, windswept meadow stretches from the site’s visitor center seated on a ridge down to the walkway overlooking the plane’s final resting place. In the summer, it blooms with yellow and purple wildflowers. Trails are lined with maples that turn stunning shades of red and orange in the fall. But the field where Flight 93 crashed on Sept. 11, 2001, was not a pristine natural space — it was a former strip mine. The memorial’s designers set out to restore life at the site, and provide a space for healing and reflection in nature. But maintaining that vision is proving to be a challenge. (McDevitt, 9/7)

State Impact Pennsylvania: Flight 93 Crashed Among Coal Mines. Treating The Water There Was No Ordinary Project 
At the time of the crash, the mines [near the Pennsylvania crash site] were owned by PBS Coals, Inc. They were shuttered soon afterward, and the families of Flight 93’s passengers and crew were looking to buy the roughly 900 acres from the coal company for the memorial. For that sale to happen, PBS needed to prove it had taken care of any water pollution problems from its mines. ... But in 2003, an inspector discovered contaminated water — highly acidic and heavy with iron and a metal called manganese — at what the families called the sacred ground: the place where their loved ones died. (Goldberg, 9/7)