In recognition of the 21st anniversary of 9/11, Pocono Update had the honor of sitting down with a World Trade Center worker who shared his account from that day.
TOBYHANNA, PA | On Thursday, September 8, John Pianoforte, who was a building engineer at the World Trade Center during the September 11 attacks, sat down with Pocono Update to share his experience from that day.
John was an on-site building engineer who lived through the 9/11 terror attacks. In this interview, he recalls the chaos of the day, his experience of being in the building during the attack, and how one coworker’s absence that day saved his life. Reflecting on the 21 years since the attacks, John also notes the changes that the country has experienced.
This article is the 2nd part of Pocono Updates 9/11 remembrance. For part one, click HERE.
Lingering Impact
A 2018 article from mountsinai.org states that nearly 10,000 first responders, and others who were in the World Trade Center area, have been diagnosed with cancer and more than 2,000 deaths have been attributed to illnesses related to 9/11. The author of the article, Michael Crane, MD, MPH, and director of the World Trade Center Health Program Clinical Center of Excellence at The Mount Sinai Hospital, went on to note that the rate of some cancers among first responders is up to 30 percent higher than in the general population. In that article, Crane also predicted, “It will get worse. By the end of 2018, many expect that more people will have died from their toxic exposure from 9/11 than were killed on that terrible day.”
