Study logs post-Sept. 11, 2001, deaths

NEW YORK, Jan. 6 (UPI) -- More than 200 rescue and recovery workers have died of cancers and other causes since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York, a state study shows.

New York Health Department researchers confirmed 98 deaths so far with certificates -- 77 dying of illnesses, including 55 from lung and other cancers, the New York Post reported Sunday. Right now, the study reports at least 204 died from a number of causes.

Auto accidents, gunshots and suicides killed 21. Five deaths were homicide; four were police officers killed in the line of duty.

"We're not saying they are all World Trade Center-related; we're just saying this is what people are dying from," Kitty Gelberg, the state Bureau of Occupational Health's chief epidemiologist, told the Post.

The year-old World Trade Center Fatalities study is expected to collect many more names of first responders during the next 18 months, she said.

"I think it's underreported right now," Gelberg said of the 204 figure. "We want to know about anyone who worked there and died."

Several of the 55 responders who died of cancer were diagnosed with the disease before the attacks, but the majority developed it afterward, Gelberg said.