Ground Zero Adds Seventh Bell for 9/11 Illnesses

"It means having my dad's story along with all the other stories acknowledged as a part of the entire 9/11 story, as well," said Leah Betso, whose father, NYPD Officer James Betso, died of brain cancer in 2015 after months of recovery work at Ground Zero. "For a long time, I think that a lot of the focus is on the people who lost their lives on that horrific day. But for families like me, the loss came many years later, and this moment is recognizing that."

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who announced this week's document release alongside 9/11 families and Stewart, was blunt about the cause. "People got sick because the leaders they trusted lied and told them they were safe to breathe in toxic air," Mamdani said.

Bridget Gormley, whose father Billy Gormley was an FDNY firefighter who worked for months at the site and died of bladder cancer in 2017, told CNN the risk was "never discussed" at home, even after he got sick. While making a film about 9/11 health effects, she said one of his friends recalled telling a colleague in the early days at Ground Zero, "This is going to kill us all one day."

Michael O'Connell, a probationary firefighter who was 25 on 9/11, said almost no one saw it coming. "I don't think anybody else ever really thought that, 'Oh, this is going to be bad in the future, you know, what we're breathing in,'" he said. He was diagnosed with sarcoidosis in 2007 and later testified in Congress for better coverage. "That's when it really became apparent that most people aren't escaping this."