2026-09-10T10:03:00.56Z / 路透社
9月10日（路透社）——2001年9月11日，被劫持客机撞毁世贸双子塔时，曼哈顿下城区附近有约2.5万名儿童当时居住或在此上学，周边社区还有数千名儿童。其中一些还是婴儿和学步幼儿，另一些甚至还在母亲子宫中。
尽管在双塔倒塌后的数日乃至数周内，他们都暴露在由粉碎的混凝土、玻璃纤维、石棉和其他污染物构成的大规模有毒云团和沉降粉尘中，但这些儿童中几乎没有人被纳入政府资助的世贸中心幸存者后续健康研究项目。这类项目主要面向急救人员和其他成年幸存者。
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科学家表示，正因如此，当时没有办法追踪这些儿童可能在如今步入30多岁、40岁出头时才显现的慢性疾病，包括癌症、心血管疾病和生殖健康结局。
科学家指出，关于“9·11”事件及之后的毒素暴露和创伤是否会增加他们的长期健康风险，仍存在诸多重大疑问。
为填补这一研究空白，美国国会于2022年宣布将资助针对这群人的一项研究，该研究将在美国疾病控制与预防中心（CDC）的监督下开展。
上个月，美国疾控中心表示，将征集研究人员申请，以组建“世贸中心青年研究协调中心”，并确定和追踪一个青年研究队列。
目前尚不清楚该机构希望招募多少参与者、何时正式征集提案，以及可用资金规模。
该机构明确，研究参与者需满足以下条件：在9月11日当天及之后居住在曼哈顿14街以下区域或布鲁克林全区，且当时年龄不超过21岁，或是在子宫内的胎儿。
研究还将招募一批年龄相仿但未暴露于相关环境的个体作为对照组。
纽约大学朗格尼医学中心的肺病专家琼·赖布曼博士回忆称，美国疾控中心的世贸中心健康项目和纽约市卫生局的世贸中心健康登记处，在袭击发生后的最初几年都为儿童提供过服务。但大多数受影响的儿童都是在自己的儿科医生那里就医，而许多成年幸存者没有保险，需要这些项目提供帮助。
在成年幸存者和急救人员中，研究人员已经确认了数十种与暴露相关的癌症和其他健康问题。但迄今为止，关于儿童暴露影响的数据仅来自小型研究。
世贸中心环境健康中心创始人赖布曼表示，招募参与者需要大量社区支持。
“这些人如今分散在美国各地，他们都已长大成人，可能并不愿意回想起那段时期。”她说，“我们需要和社区团体开展大量工作，努力招募他们。”
赖布曼和现任世贸中心环境健康中心医疗主任利·威尔逊博士都承认，如今战区的儿童可能面临一些与“9·11”事件儿童相同的长期健康后果。
“我希望能避免这些儿童受到任何不良影响。”威尔逊说。
威尔逊补充道，对“9·11”事件儿童的研究可能会为预防性和缓解性措施及资源的制定提供参考。
“你必须立即识别并着手研究所有暴露人群，无论他们是成人还是儿童，”赖布曼说，“不幸的是，我们并没有从世贸中心灾难中吸取到这个教训。”
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Children of 9/11 to finally get a major health study
2026-09-10T10:03:00.56Z / Reuters
Sept 10 (Reuters) – When hijacked planes brought down the World Trade Center’s twin towers on September 11, 2001, roughly 25,000 children were living or attending school nearby in lower Manhattan, and thousands more were in surrounding neighborhoods. Some were infants and toddlers, while others were still in the womb.
Even though they were exposed to the massive toxic cloud and settling dust containing pulverized concrete, glass fibers, asbestos, and other pollutants in the days and weeks after the towers fell, very few of these children were enrolled in the government-funded follow-up health studies of WTC survivors. Those were mainly for first responders and other adults.
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As a result, there was no means of tracking chronic illnesses, including cancers, cardiovascular diseases and reproductive health outcomes, that may only now be emerging as those children reach their 30s and early 40s, scientists say.
Major questions remain about whether exposure to the toxins and the trauma on 9/11 and afterward increased their long-term health risks, according to scientists.
To address these gaps, Congress announced in 2022 that it would fund a study of these individuals to be conducted with U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention oversight.
Last month, the CDC said it will be seeking applications from researchers to set up the World Trade Center Youth Research Coordinating Center and identify and track a Youth Research Cohort.
It was not immediately known how many participants the agency hopes to recruit, when exactly it will formally request proposals, and how much funding is available.
The agency has specified that study participants will have been 21 years old or younger, or in utero, and living below 14th Street in Manhattan or anywhere in Brooklyn on and after 9/11.
A cohort of similarly aged but unexposed individuals will be recruited for comparison.
The CDC’s World Trade Center Health Program and the New York City Department of Health’s World Trade Center Health Registry both offered services for children in the early years after the attacks. But most affected youngsters sought care from their own pediatricians, whereas many adult survivors were uninsured and needed the programs’ services, recalled lung specialist Dr. Joan Reibman of NYU Langone Medical Center.
In adult survivors and first responders, dozens of types of cancers and other health issues related to their exposure have been identified. But data on the effects of childhood exposure has so far come only from small studies.
Reibman, the founder of the World Trade Center Environmental Health Center, said gathering participants will require a great deal of community support.
“These people are spread across the United States right now. They’re all older. They may not necessarily want to go back to that period of time,” she said. “There’s going to have to be a lot of work with community groups to try to recruit them.”
Reibman and Dr. Leigh Wilson, the current medical director of the World Trade Center Environmental Health Center, both acknowledged that children in war zones today may face some of the same long-term consequences as the children of 9/11.
“I would love to prevent every and any adverse effect in these children,” Wilson said.
Studying the children of 9/11 may shed light on preventive and mitigating measures and resources that could be put in place, Wilson added.
“You have to identify and start studying all exposed populations immediately, whether they’re adults or children,” Reibman said, and “unfortunately we haven’t learned it from the World Trade Center disaster.”
Reporting by Nancy Lapid; Editing by Caroline Humer and Bill Berkrot
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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