World Trade Center (WTC) Health Program Releases Young Adult Outreach Videos to Raise Awareness about 9/11 Health Issues

The World Trade Center (WTC) Health Program released new outreach videos today to raise awareness about the Program benefits available to survivors who were 21 years or younger on 9/11. Many children or students who were 21 years or younger in the New York City Disaster Area at the time may now be suffering from chronic illnesses without realizing their connection to 9/11.

The videos feature Program members currently between 24 and 45 years old sharing their 9/11 health stories.

These firsthand stories of young adult survivors are being shared to help others who were there recognize that their health conditions today—from asthma and GERD to PTSD and cancer—could be connected to their 9/11 exposures.

Thousands of children and young adults were either living or attending school in Lower Manhattan on the day of the attacks, and tens of thousands more were in the path of the plume of building debris and smoke, close enough to inhale particulates and toxic substances.

Twenty-four years after 9/11, asthma, cancer, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are some of the most common health conditions faced by many young adult WTC Survivors who were 21 years or younger on 9/11. Young adult survivors are underrepresented among enrolled WTC Health Program members because many have not connected their symptoms to their 9/11 exposures. As of September 2025, only 3,400 of the Program's 137,000 members are young adult survivors even though tens of thousands may be potentially eligible to receive Program benefits.

Watch the videos and learn more.