9/11 firefighters with cancer

The program, run by NIOSH (part of the CDC), has three groups of responders (eligible groups):

• FDNY responders: active or retired FDNY members, firefighters and emergency staff, who did rescue or recovery work at Ground Zero, the Staten Island landfill or the city medical examiner's office between September 11, 2001 and July 31, 2002, for at least 4 hours.
• Pentagon and Shanksville responders: fire and police department members, among others, who did rescue, recovery or cleanup work for at least 4 hours: at the Pentagon up to November 19, 2001, at Shanksville up to October 3, 2001.
• WTC general responders: the group for the other responders at the New York sites, NYPD included.

There is no deadline to enroll (WTC Health Program). The program runs until 2090 under the Zadroga Act (program laws).

The federal list of 9/11 conditions includes these cancers (42 CFR 88.15, conditions list):

• Leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma
• Colon and rectal cancer
• Prostate cancer
• Bladder and kidney cancer
• Mesothelioma
• Lung and other breathing-tract cancers
• Skin cancer, melanoma and other kinds
• Thyroid cancer
• Uterine cancer, added in January 2023
• Rare cancers: any cancer with fewer than 15 cases per 100,000 people a year

The cancer must also show up long enough after your first 9/11 exposure, with no exceptions (minimum latency policy):

• Mesothelioma: 11 years
• Most solid cancers: 4 years
• Thyroid cancer: 2.5 years
• Leukemia and lymphoma: 146 days

A program doctor then has to find that your 9/11 exposure was likely a significant cause (member handbook).

1. Apply online through the program's OASIS system or on a paper form by mail or fax (how to apply). FDNY responders use their own FDNY responder application (applications).
2. If you apply online, also send the signature form signed in ink. Electronic signatures and email applications are not accepted.
3. FDNY members are seen at the FDNY's own clinics across the New York area (member handbook).

Members pay no co-pays or deductibles for treating a certified 9/11 condition. The program does not replace your own health insurance for other care (WTC Health Program).

The VCF pays people who were harmed by the 9/11 attacks or the debris removal after them, and the families of those who died (VCF eligibility). For a cancer claim you need:

• Proof you were at one of the three sites, or in the VCF's New York exposure zone, during the set dates.
• A 9/11 condition certified for treatment by the WTC Health Program.
• Any 9/11 lawsuit dropped or settled by its deadline.

The award is the pain-and-suffering part plus lost pay and other money losses, minus other payments (how awards are figured). The pain-and-suffering part is capped at $250,000 for one type of cancer; in a small number of cases with more than one cancer it reaches $340,000 (VCF award fact sheet). For a death it starts at $250,000 plus $100,000 for the spouse and each dependent. Pension, life insurance, Social Security, workers' comp and lawsuit payments are taken off the total (VCF).

• Register within 2 years of the latest date a government body, usually the WTC Health Program, told you the condition is 9/11-related (VCF deadlines). Registering keeps your right to claim; it is not a claim.
• File the claim by October 1, 2090. The VCF says to file after the health program certifies your cancer (getting started).
• If you registered on or before July 29, 2021, you have already met the registration deadline. A family claiming after a death has 2 years from the death, or from the VCF confirming the condition, whichever is later (VCF deadlines).

You do not need to be sick to register, and registering does not commit you to anything (how to register).