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WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the World Trade Center Health Program (WTCHP) issued a Final Rule adding all types of uterine cancer, including endometrial cancer, to the list of WTC-Related Health Conditions effective January 18, 2023. Congressman Andrew R. Garbarino (R-NY-02) applauds this decision, having long been an advocate for the inclusion of uterine cancer as a covered condition.
In September 2020, a team of scientists and physicians at Rutgers’ Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute, a WTCHP Center of Excellence, led a petition to add uterine cancer to the list of WTCHP covered conditions in which they noted that endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) have been referenced in recent years as possibly contributing to the development of endometrial cancer, a form of uterine cancer. Many chemicals from the WTC dust have been cited as EDCs, including polychlorinated dibenzoparadoxins and polychlorinated dibenzofurans. Rep. Garbarino, among other Members of Congress, took note of this petition and endeavored on a bipartisan basis last Congress to urge the WTCHP and the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to take this action.
"I applaud this decision by the World Trade Center Health Program to include uterine cancer as one of the covered conditions for 9/11 first responders and survivors," said Rep. Garbarino. "While women were active participants in the rescue and recovery efforts after the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center, and many other cancers of the female and male reproductive system have been included in the WTCHP as covered conditions, until now, uterine cancer was not on that list. The inclusion of uterine cancer as a WTCHP covered condition will further advance the good work that the WTCHP continues to do for those that it serves and ensure that our first responders and survivors receive the health care they deserve."
The James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act created the World Trade Center Health Program (WTCHP). Today, the WTCHP provides medical treatment and monitoring for over 118,000 responders and survivors from the World Trade Center and lower Manhattan, the Pentagon, and the Shanksville, PA crash site, who live in every state and in 434 out of 435 Congressional Districts.
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