February 26 1993 & Ongoing burden of 9/11 health Conditions
The 9/11 Tribute Center has been calling public attention to the historical impact of terrorism and evolving issues since it opened in September 2006. Over the past ten years, the 9/11 Tribute Center has been a pioneer in the creation of educational content dealing with the terrorist attacks of September 11th, providing a safe space in which the public may engage with challenging contemporary history.
This week the 9/11 Tribute Center is opening two exhibits, one currently available online, and one at the Center. The online exhibition shares personal experiences of the rst attack on the World Trade Center on February 26, 1993. The second exhibit at the Tribute Center explores health issues faced by people who lived through the second attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.
The online exhibit February 26, 1993, features interviews with survivors who walked down thousands of steps in darkness and emerged covered in soot up to 8 hours after the truck bomb exploded in the basement parking garage of the World Trade Center. Personal stories feature two rst responders, one a member of the Port Authority Police Department and the other a member of the FDNY. PAPD Assistant Chief Norma Hardy, who was a rookie in the PAPD at the time, recalled that she was trying to take a group of teenagers out of the building, and “we couldn’t open the door, and now panic is setting in all over the place.” She nally led them out through a basement ramp. The exhibit also features stories from people who work for New York’s premier shipping publication, the Journal of Commerce, who recalled that after the bombing they were eager to get back to work in the Twin Towers as soon as they could. “It was still so early in the days of terrorism. It happened, but it was not an event you could put in any sort of larger context,” Peter Tirschwell, Journal of Commerce publisher re ected.
The exhibit in the Tribute Center gallery, 9/11 health Conditions, will open on February 26, 2016. New York City’s World Trade Center Health Registry considers that approximately 400,000 people were exposed to unknown toxins on 9/11 and in the days, weeks and months afterward. Through the reauthorization of the Zadroga Bill by the U.S. Congress in late 2015, the World Trade Center Medical Monitoring and Treatment programs in NY and NJ will continue serving survivors, rst responders, area residents, area workers and passersby whose health issues are related to 9/11. The exhibit points to two of the most common health conditions that have been attributed to 9/11 to date – pulmonary issues and post traumatic stress disorder – and gives statistics on the exposed populations and health ndings that have helped give healthcare providers improved ways to care for patients.
