9/11 responders suffer from rare blood cancer

In what's been described as a possible "third wave" of illnesses for those exposed to toxic dust post-9/11, the World Trade Center Medical Monitoring Program is expressing concern over the number of WTC site workers with lymphatic and blood cancers.

While New York city's health commissioner has said there is no evidence linking dust exposure to cancer, the Medical Monitoring Program reports a "handful of cases of multiple myeloma in very young individuals." They add, "multiple myeloma is a condition that ... almost aways presents later in life."

However, because the disease may take years to develop in some individuals, proof of a correlation most likely won't emerge for decades.

This is all in addition to the confirmed respiratory illnesses found in 70% of the nearly 40,000 ground zero workers.