Hundreds of thousands of people are estimated to have been exposed to the toxic dusts and gases released after the World Trade Center attacks on September 11, 2001, but only about 80,000 have sought treatment and are taking advantage of available resources.

SurvivorNet spoke with Gaetane C. Michaud, MD, chief of interventional pulmonology at NYU Langone’s Perlmutter Cancer Center. “The air quality was really poor and there was a lot of debris. There were a lot of gases. So people who didn’t even realize they were exposed were exposed,” Dr. Michaud says. “If you think you’ve had exposure, speak with your primary care doctor.”

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