Where We Stand: 9/11, Six Years Later

9/11 by the Numbers

2,974 were killed Sept. 11, 2001 (Source: 9/11 Commission Report.)

The collapse of the Twin Towers brought 200,000 tons of steel, 600,000 square feet of window glass, 5,000 tons of asbestos, 12,000 miles of electric cables and 425,000 cubic yards of concrete crashing down into lower Manhattan (Source: New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene & Agency for Toxic Substance and Disease Registry, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services)

The combustion produced a toxic cauldron of concrete dust, glass fibers and cancer-causing asbestos, as well as particles of lead, chlorine, antimony, aluminum, magnesium, iron, zinc and calcium. About 24,000 gallons of jet fuel and burning plastics released carcinogens including dioxins, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, polychlorinated biphenyls and polychlorinated furins (Source: 2004 analysis published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives)

Settlements

97 percent of victims' families filed claims with the Sept. 11 Victims Compensation Fund

The Victim Compensation Fund has paid out $5.99 billion to 2,880 families of 9/11 victims and more than $1 billion to 2,680 people who were injured (mostly for respiratory illness), including $626 million to more than 1,300 injured firefighters. Eligibility for fund money for physical injuries was restricted to those who were at the WTC or Pentagon at the time of the attack or rescue workers who were there within 96 hours after the attack (Source: Victim Compensation Fund Final Report)

Approximately 13 families of 9/11 victims have never sought any compensation. They have never filed with the compensation fund and have never filed lawsuits. (Source: Sept. 11 Victim Compensation Fund special master Kenneth Feinberg)

Lawsuits

Forty-one lawsuits on behalf of 42 people either killed or injured in the attack remain ongoing in federal court in Manhattan against the airlines and security companies. Nearly 53 similar lawsuits have led to settlements, though the settlement figures are sealed. One was dismissed. (Source: federal court documents)

More than 11,000 people have filed lawsuits against New York City, the Port Authority and dozens of private companies for negligence in exposing them to dust and debris. These cases are consolidated in Manhattan federal court, but have not been certified a class action. (Source: law firms Worby, Groner, Edelman; Napoli, Bern, Ripka; Sullivan Papain Block McGrath & Cannavo)

Legal action related to 9/11 against New York City has spiked in the last year. About 3,361 new notices of claim — the first step in a lawsuit — were filed in fiscal year 2007, ending June 30, 2007. That's nearly three times the number of claims filed in fiscal year 2006, 1,123. About 361 were filed in fiscal 2005, and 55 the previous fiscal year (Source: office of New York City Comptroller William Thompson)

The New York Environmental Law & Justice Project is at the forefront of an ongoing federal lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and former EPA administrator Christie Todd Whitman. The lawsuit alleges that Whitman made materially misleading statements about the air quality in and around ground zero. (Source: federal court documents)

Earlier this year, seven insurance companies agreed to pay World Trade Center lessee Silverstein Properties Inc. $.4.5 billion in insurance claims. (Source: New York state Governor's Office)

More than a dozen insurance companies, World Trade Center tenants and neighboring property owners have filed lawsuits against the airlines, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, security companies and construction contractors alleging the towers were negligently designed, maintained and built. (Source: federal court documents)

Lawsuits have also been filed by victim families, WTC tenants, insurance companies and the Port Authority against hundreds of alleged supporters and financiers of the Sept. 11 attacks, including al Qaeda, the Saudi Bin Laden Group and foreign banks and charities, for allegedly aiding and funding al Qaeda while knowing about the group's intent to attack the United States. (Source: federal court documents)

Civil Servant Statistics

Approximately 13,300 active New York City firefighters and officers on Sept. 10, 2001. (Source: FDNY)

343 New York City firefighters died on 9/11 (Source: FDNY)

At least 5,000 active and retired FDNY firefighters are currently undergoing medical treatment for injury or illness related to 9/11 (FDNY)

At least 3,000 FDNY firefighters have sought respiratory treatment since 9/11 (FDNY)

At least 600 FDNY firefighters have taken early retirement due to permanent respiratory illnesses since 9/11 (FDNY)

In the year after the 9/11 attacks, city firefighters as a group lost lung function equivalent to 12 years of aging (Source: joint study by FDNY and Mount Sinai Medical Center, released August 2006)

23 members of the NYPD died on 9/11 (Source: NYPD) Similar statistics from the NYPD and construction and iron worker union officials were not immediately available for respiratory illnesses, early retirements or current treatments.

Respiratory Ailments

Between 40,000 and 50,000 first responders, rescue and recovery workers and cleanup crews participated in the dismantling of the wreckage at ground zero. (Source: estimates provided by New York City health and city officials, plaintiff lawyers and Kenneth Feinberg)

71,000 people have signed up for the World Trade Center Health Registry, a health monitoring survey launched in 2003 by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. (Source: http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/wtc/html/registry/registry.shtml)

Nearly 22,000 first responders, rescue/recovery and cleanup workers have been screened and monitored by the federally funded Mount Sinai Medical Center consortium of five treatment centers in New York and New Jersey. Note: this figure does not include New York City firefighters. (Source: Mount Sinai Medical Center)

In the last year, between 400 and 600 new enrollees have joined the Mount Sinai program. Last month, 760 people enrolled in the monitoring and screening program. (Source: Mount Sinai Medical Center)