WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-How 9/11 literally took some people's breath away

September 8, 2011

Fire Paramedic David Russell can't forget the month he spent searching for victims of the 9/11 terror attacks.

"The air was thick," Russell said.

His asthma and other ailments are constant reminders of those horrible days.

"I have tightness in my chest, a tightness in my breathing, I wheeze constantly," he said.

"We're seeing several classes of illness that are much more common in the 9/11 responders than the general population in New York City or the U.S.," said Dr. Philip Landrigan of Mount Sinai Medical Center.

A new study finds 30 percent of nearly 30,000 first responders studied have asthma, 42 percent sinusitis and 39 percent GERD or acid reflux.

New legislation passed this year will provide compensation and free medical care for first responders. But others were also exposed.

"I was a high school senior. It was the third or fourth day of school," Lila Nordstrom said.

Nordstrom and her classmates at Stuyvesant High School watched the towers fall and went back to class a month later.

"Vents weren't clean, the carpets hadn't been replaced," she said.

Living in California now, the 27-year-old struggles with her health.

"The thing that is making my asthma worse is the acid reflux," she said. "A lot of us are experiencing it and it's very expensive to treat."

Without insurance and unable to return to New York every three months to get her free medical care and medicine, Nordstrom often goes without.

In addition to asthma, David Russell has now been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and thyroid disease.

"Nothing I do can make it go away," Russell said.

So he exercises, eats right and enjoys the little moments in life.

Click here for more on health impacts of 9/11.

CBS News