(CNN) -- John Meyers
remembers standing at ground zero, feeling like a small speck amid mountains of
debris.
"Everything was
pulverized," said Meyers, a former New York police officer and
first-responder who provided security after the September 11 terror attacks.
"It was nothing but dust."
For 20 days, during
14-hour shifts, Meyers breathed in countless chemicals; he even ate meals on site
as the dust hovered.
Most of that time, he
did not wear a mask. In retrospect, he said, "We were ingesting whole
buildings."
Less than four years
later, at age 46, Meyers was diagnosed with stage IV oropharyngeal cancer. One
tumor had formed in Meyers' throat and two on his lymph nodes. An ultrasound
later revealed another tumor near his collarbone.
"All four were
malignant," said Meyers, who choked up as he recalled being diagnosed.
"I asked, 'What's my chances?' No one could give me an answer."
According to the most
recent data from the World Trade Center Health Program, there are nearly 3,000
cases of cancer among firefighters, police officers, contractors and
civilians who worked or lived near the site of the attacks.
A growing number are
being diagnosed with oropharyngeal cancer, but some -- including Meyers -- are
being denied insurance coverage because their cancers were diagnosed too soon
after 9/11.
The minimum latency
period for oropharyngeal cancers -- in other words, the minimum time period
required to prove a link between exposure to toxins at ground zero and a
diagnosis of that type of cancer -- is four years.
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