WATCH: 9/11 first responders’ brains aging faster than their bodies, research shows

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(The Center Square) - Twenty-five years after 9/11, health effects for first responders and others exposed to toxins at ground zero are still piling up.

An estimated 400,000 people were exposed to toxic contaminants and subjected to physical injury in the hours and days that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. 

According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 96,000 have been diagnosed with physical and mental health conditions related to 9/11.

One of the nation’s leading researchers working with World Trade Center first responders has found that those with chronic post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD linked to their work on the site following the 2001 attack, are showing signs of accelerated brain aging.

Florida International University (FIU) researcher Dr. Roberto Lucchini works with World Trade Center responders who moved from New York to Florida upon retirement, to study effects on their health decades later.

“The responders were exposed to two things; intensive psychological trauma, and chemicals, and those two together actually can interact between them, and the effect can be even stronger,” Lucchini in an interview with The Center Square.

His research, published in Translational Psychiatry, found that responders with chronic post-traumatic stress disorder had brains that on average appeared about three years older than their actual age.  

That cognitive decline means losing memory and the ability to concentrate.

The Special Master of the September 11 Victims Compensation Fund (VCF) said last week that, in 2025 alone, the VCF notified claimants of over 9,800 awards determinations, with more than $1.8 billion awarded.

“And as of August 31st, 2026, the VCF has received over 112,000 claims, awarding over $18.56 billion to over 77,000 claimants since reopening in 2011,” said VCF Special Master Allison Turkel in a Sept 2 press briefing, encouraging 9/11 victims to register for the compensation fund.

She urged people who know someone who might have been present in the New York City Exposure Zone, the Pentagon site, or the Shanksville, Penn., site to contact the VCF.

“We ask that they share VCF information with their friends, family, community members or platforms, and visit our website at www.vcf.gov for information they can share.”

Back to Lucchini’s research

Lucchini and his team analyzed MRI scans from 99 World Trade Center responders in their mid-50s: 47 with chronic PTSD and 52 without it. 

“Among responders with PTSD, estimated brain age was an average of about three years older than chronological age. Brain age was slightly younger than expected among responders without PTSD,” noted Lucchini in the FIU article.

They found first responders who wore medically approved protective face coverings, like N-95 masks, were less likely to suffer long-term health impacts.

He told The Center Square the findings should be considered for other first responders in disasters around the world.

“I see videos of responders in Colombia and Venezuela and every time I see those videos, I listen to their story. They want to save life, whatever it takes. They don't care. They don't have time to think about anything else. They don’t sleep. They don't eat, et cetera. But in those environments, they are exposed,” said Lucchini.

He noted the sights and smells of those scenes can stay with responders for a long time and can cause long-lasting psychological trauma, even for people whose life training is in disaster response.

Understanding how physical exposures combined with psychological trauma can interact over a long period of time could help researchers better anticipate the long-term consequences of future disasters.

He added being a researcher at FIU puts him in contact with college age people, many of whom were not even alive when 9/11 happened.

“Definitely this anniversary is important. A lot of these kids were not even born, or they don't know anything about it. We need to listen to these stories,” Lucchini said.