9/11’s Dust and Ash Coated Their Childhood. Is It Still Making Them Ill? (Gift Article)

I wrote about this in read.dukeupress.edu/environmenta... Open access. The intimacy and toxicity of dust from the World Trade Center, 9/11

Stuyvesant High School reopened the month after 9/11. Six blocks south, Ground Zero burned thru December. “The pages of textbooks had an acrid smell ... And dust was everywhere: in the upholstery of the auditorium seats, in the gray sludge that covered the streets.” www.nytimes.com/2026/09/08/n...

"Mr. Fortinsky and his sisters are among the youngest of the generation of children who witnessed Sept. 11 or were exposed to the dust cloud. Others are entering middle age." www.nytimes.com/2026/09/08/n...

"The toxic exposures did not end that day: The pile where the towers once stood smoldered for months. The dust and smoke deposited toxins into homes and schools. The dust lingered on carpets where toddlers crawled and in the ducts of air-conditioning systems." www.nytimes.com/2026/09/08/n...

And this:

9/11’s Dust and Ash Coated Their Childhood. Is It Still Making Them Ill? www.nytimes.com/2026/09/08/n...

www.nytimes.com/2026/09/08/n...

9/11’s Dust and Ash Coated Their Childhood. Is It Still Making Them Ill? www.nytimes.com/2026/09/08/n...

9/11’s Dust and Ash Coated Their Childhood. Is It Still Making Them Ill? Much of the research on exposure to the World Trade Center residue has focused on emergency workers, but people there when they were young say their health is at risk, too.