Unfinished Wound: Ground Zero’s Toxic Dust

Long after the debris was cleared from Lower Manhattan, the “dust” of Ground Zero continued its work inside the human body. Decades of longitudinal medicine reveal that we possess no evolutionary blueprint for resolving such a caustic, synthetic assault. At this 25-year milestone, the clinical record reveals an enduring medical reality: for those who breathed on the pile—the enormous mound of wreckage left after the Twin Towers collapsed—and in its surroundings, the wound never truly closed.