40% of the remaining parts of September 11
casualties are as yet unclear..
America tested thousands of DNA samples to no avail
More than two decades after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center, medical officials in New York are still working to identify about 40 percent of the victims, According to the American website Axios.
Last week, just days before the United States commemorated the twenty-second anniversary of September 11, the New York coroner's office said it had identified two new victims of the attacks that killed at least 2,753 people.
He added that the identification of the two new victims, Nos. 1648 and 1649, came long after negative results from the office's DNA laboratory.
The two victims, whose names were withheld from the public at the request of their families, were the first to be identified since September 2021, thus identifying 59.9% of the victims, while the office said it also found that 60 of the other human remains belonged to previously identified victims.
Thousands of DNA samples.
Identifying the victims of September 11 remains one of the biggest challenges of all, according to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
It requires testing of thousands of DNA samples taken from human remains collected at the site, and samples collected from the personal belongings of missing persons, their relatives or other remains.
In many cases, the victim's DNA is degraded by exposure to extreme heat, to burning jet fuel and months of moisture after attacks.
This research has actually led to the development of new DNA sequencing techniques, according to the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Last week, the New York City Fire Department (FDNY) announced that 43 names of first responders who died from illnesses related to the Sept. 11 attacks had been added to its World Trade Center memorial, including firefighters, paramedics and members of emergency medical teams.
The Unitarian Firefighters Association wrote in a Facebook post on Monday, Sept. 11, that in the 22 years since Sept. 11, 341 New York City Fire Service members have died from cancers and rare diseases caused by toxic dust in the Ground Zero area.
That's roughly equal to the 343 firefighters in New York City who died on Sept. 11, 2001.
According to the New York City police, 23 NYPD officers died on September 11. In the years following the attacks, 323 members of the force died of associated illnesses.
Health illnesses associated with the September 11 events also affected members of the FBI and the Department of Defense.
FBI Director Christopher Wray said last year that 21 FBI employees had died from illnesses linked to the attacks in the years that followed.
September 11 Victims Compensation Fund
The increase in funding for the September 11 Victims Compensation Fund has been the subject of long-running congressional efforts.
In 2019, the Senate voted to secure funding for the fund until 2092, and former President Donald Trump signed the legislation into law.
A new New York law, called the September 11/11 Notice Act, will require large corporations to inform their current and former employees who were in attack areas of their eligibility to enroll in federal programs that provide compensation and health care to victims of attacks.
New York Governor Kathy Hokol signed the bill into law on Monday, September 11, 2023.
"On this solemn day, let us not only honour those who lost their lives on September 11, but also offer our support to the survivors, their loved ones and those who first came into contact with them," Hokol said in a statement.