Ground Zero Cancers - NYTimes.com Federal health officials took a reasonable and humane step last week when they proposed to add 50 cancers to the list of illnesses covered by a $4.3 billion fund to treat and compensate emergency workers and residents exposed to toxic fumes, dust and smoke from the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on Sept. Dr. John Howard, director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, decided to add the cancers based on a study of New York City firefighters and recommendations by a scientific and technical advisory committee set up under a federal law enacted last year. Under that law, rescue and recovery workers and people who lived, worked or went to school near the World Trade Center are eligible to seek free monitoring and medical care and compensation for economic losses or pain and suffering, based on duration of exposure and other factors. The illnesses that qualified have been mostly respiratory or gastrointestinal. Until now, cancer was left off the list for lack of persuasive evidence. Now Dr. Howard has reversed course and added 50 types of cancer recommended for inclusion by the advisory committee. These include such common cancers as lung, breast and colorectal cancer and relatively rare childhood cancers. Patients can be compensated only if designated physicians certify that toxic materials or other hazards at ground zero were "substantially likely" to have aggravated or caused the cancer. Dr. Howard said he also relied on a peer-reviewed study published last fall in The Lancet, a British medical journal. It found that firefighters exposed to toxic substances at ground zero suffered a 20 percent higher rate of cancer than firefighters who were not exposed. Some experts still believe the evidence linking the Sept. 11 attacks to cancers is weak. But we have a moral obligation to ensure that those harmed by exposure at ground zero get the medical and financial help they need.