By Laura Figueroa Hernandezlaura.figueroa@newsday.com@Laura_FigueroaSeptember 1, 2026 2:00 am
Days spent interviewing Ground Zero recovery workers turned into weeks, then months, as Nadia Vizueta, a New York University journalism student at the time, worked to document the herculean effort
Vizueta, then 20 years old, spent hours interviewing recovery workers and photographing the soot-covered streets of lower Manhattan without a face mask or any protective covering
“It never crossed my mind that there would be an issue,” she said in a recent phone interview
Now 45 and a survivor of breast cancer, Vizueta is among a growing pool of adults between the ages of 25 and 46 who are enrolled in the World Trade Center Health Program, the federally funded program that provides healthcare and screenings to people dealing with cancers and other chronic health conditions tied to their exposure to the toxic air of the attack sites
The program currently serves about 150,000 people, but the cohort of young adults only represents about 3% of enrollees. As the 25th anniversary of the attacks approaches, program officials and advocates alike are hoping to raise awareness to this group of adults who may not realize they qualify for the program
Dr. Kristi Anderson, chief medical officer of the World Trade Center Health Program, told Newsday in a phone interview the program is looking to conduct more outreach so that many of those who were children, teens or young adults living or attending school near Ground Zero understand they may qualify for health screening and treatments under the program
“They might not have been involved in the response, but they were still exposed to all those toxic chemicals and dust and things that were in the air, and so they also are potentially eligible for the program,” Anderson said. “We’re definitely trying to reach out to them to let them know that there are benefits available, healthcare, more options to participate in research, those type of things.”
The World Trade Center attack site was mere blocks from several schools including Stuyvesant High School and Children’s Discovery Center, a daycare center for babies and toddlers that was quickly evacuated after the attacks
Anderson said while most enrollees in the program are grappling with cancers and respiratory diseases, there is also a mental health component
“Sometimes you experience a trauma so long ago, and we don’t recognize that the symptoms we’re having today — in terms of depression, anxiety, even PTSD — may be linked to that exposure so long ago,” Anderson said
Ben Chevat, executive director of 9/11 Healthwatch, a group that advocates on behalf of World Trade Center Health Program participants, said the younger cohort of survivors “needs this focus,” and more tracking of which diseases may be cropping up among this group
“The outreach to this population, those who attended schools in lower Manhattan and Western Brooklyn in the days and months after 9/11, is critically important and I am glad that the World Trade Center Health Program is making this concerted effort,” Chevat said in an email
Vizueta, who now lives in Michigan with her husband and two children, said she didn’t have much knowledge about the health program until her diagnosis with breast cancer. She said someone mentioned the program in a cancer support group.
She credits the federal program with ensuring she had continuity in her chemotherapy treatments, noting that after a doctor ordered a change in her treatment plan, she was warned insurance providers typically delay approving such changes
“Because I was in the World Trade Center Health Program, I feel like they kind of stepped in” and sped up the approval process, she said
“When you have that cancer diagnosis, you’re almost against the clock, and you have to go into treatment immediately, you don’t have time to wait,” said Vizueta, who has now been cancer-free for five years
By Laura Figueroa Hernandezlaura.figueroa@newsday.com@Laura_Figueroa
Laura Figueroa Hernandez is the White House correspondent and previously covered New York City politics and government. She joined Newsday in 2012 after covering state and local politics for The Miami Herald
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