--- title: 9/11 First Responders Health: Emergency Services Face Problems description: It’s been more than a decade since the September 11 attacks, but many emergency workers continue to feel its health effects. canonical: https://time.com/3825056/september-11-first-responder/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-04-16T18:38:26.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T06:27:02.312Z article:section: Health og:title: Health Problems Linger for 9/11 First Responders og:description: Emergency medical services workers who arrived at the World Trade Center site were twice as likely to show signs of depression than those who didn't og:url: https://time.com/3825056/september-11-first-responder/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbe6573b9032e8007/6987eb9a55a859307ba89a0b/september-11-world-trade-centers.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Firefighter walks through the rubble of the World Trade Center after it was struck by commercial airliners in a terrorist attack, Sept. 12 2001. after the first. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Health Problems Linger for 9/11 First Responders twitter:description: Emergency medical services workers who arrived at the World Trade Center site were twice as likely to show signs of depression than those who didn't twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbe6573b9032e8007/6987eb9a55a859307ba89a0b/september-11-world-trade-centers.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Health Problems Linger for 9/11 First Responders > Sponsored content. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators.  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Apr 16, 2015 6:38 PM UTC  Firefighter walks through the rubble of the World Trade Center after it was struck by commercial airliners in a terrorist attack, Sept. 12 2001\. after the first. Firefighter walks through the rubble of the World Trade Center after it was struck by commercial airliners in a terrorist attack, Sept. 12 2001\. after the first. Todd Maisel—New York Daily News/Getty Images  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Apr 16, 2015 6:38 PM UTC It’s been more than a decade since the attacks of 9/11, but many of the first emergency workers to arrive at the World Trade Center site continue to feel health effects. Nearly 17% of emergency medical service (EMS) workers who responded to the 9/11 terrorist attacks display symptoms of depression and 7% show signs of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), according to a new [study](http://oem.bmj.com/lookup/doi/10.1136/oemed-2014-102601) in the journal _Occupational & Environmental Medicine._ “Our findings are part of a pattern of adverse health outcomes found among those who were exposed to the disaster,” said study author Mayris Webber, a health official at the New York City Fire Department, in an email. “We highlight the importance of continued medical monitoring and treatment of FDNY EMS workers, and indeed, of other responders and individuals who were affected by the \[World Trade Center\] disaster.” **Read More:** [Why 40% of Americans Misremember Their 9/11 Experience](http://time.com/3739786/memory-september-11/) The study, conducted by researchers for the New York Fire Department, evaluated the health of nearly 2,300 New York City Fire Department EMS workers over a 12-year period. In addition to depression and PTSD, EMS workers experienced a number of conditions that affected their physical health including 12% who experienced acid reflux disease and 3% who experienced cancer. And the earlier a medical worker responded, the greater his or her risk for medical conditions. The study adds to a body of research that has found long-term health effects on police officers and firefighters who responded to 9/11, but it’s the first research to look specifically at EMS workers, whose primary responsibility is to provide medical care. Because of the difference between the roles of EMS workers and police officers and firefighters, EMS workers tend to be at lower risk of health conditions than EMS workers, researchers said. The findings suggests that 9/11 responders still need to be monitored to protect their health, researchers said. The New York City Fire Department plans to do just that. “At the Fire Department, in addition to providing treatment, we will continue our efforts to identify emerging health conditions and to identify individuals who are at high risk for developing these conditions,” said Webber. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3825056/september-11-first-responder/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3825056/september-11-first-responder/"},"headline":"Health Problems Linger for 9/11 First Responders","datePublished":"2015-04-16T18:38:26.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T06:27:02.312Z","description":"Emergency medical services workers who arrived at the World Trade Center site were twice as likely to show signs of depression than those who didn't","url":"https://time.com/3825056/september-11-first-responder/","keywords":["Research","Mental Health/Psychology"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbe6573b9032e8007/6987eb9a55a859307ba89a0b/september-11-world-trade-centers.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Justin Worland","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/justin-worland/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbe6573b9032e8007/6987eb9a55a859307ba89a0b/september-11-world-trade-centers.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Firefighter walks through the rubble of the World Trade Center after it was struck by commercial airliners in a terrorist attack, Sept. 12 2001. after the first.","caption":"Firefighter walks through the rubble of the World Trade Center after it was struck by commercial airliners in a terrorist attack, Sept. 12 2001. after the first.","creditText":"Todd Maisel—New York Daily News/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/research/","name":"Research"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3825056/september-11-first-responder/","name":"Health Problems Linger for 9/11 First Responders"}}]}] ```