More than 20 years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the volume of research on responders and survivors is substantial and growing, yielding sometimes unexpected, potentially powerful revelations about the long-term physical and mental effects of exposure to disaster. Nicholas Spangler reports on Newsday.com that PubMed, an electronic database of the National Library of Medicine, lists roughly 1,300 scientific papers about the World Trade Center with close to 60 published in the last year. The latest papers examine links between exposure to what doctors have called the “toxic cocktail” of gas and dust at Ground Zero and cancer, pulmonary and cardiovascular conditions, along with trends in substance use and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Today is the 22nd anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. “There are so many questions still out there,” said Dr. Benjamin Luft, director and principal investigator of the Stony Brook World Trade Center Wellness Program. “Think of the number of toxicants that were at the World Trade Center site. About 70 were identified, which is huge. Some of these are extremely potent agents that affect multiple systems … These are agents that affect both the development of cancer, autoimmune disease, neurodegenerative processes.” The tens of thousands of participants in Stony Brook’s program and four similar programs in New York City and New Jersey may not follow the minutiae of every new study. But some keep themselves broadly informed, interested in their own health and the fate of others who served with them. Carol Paukner, a retired NYPD officer from Miller Place, has visited the Stony Brook clinic and participated in its research almost since it opened, she said. A multisport athlete before the attacks, Paukner was helping civilians to safety when one of the towers collapsed. She crawled out of the rubble. After multiple surgeries, she lives with blood cancer, sinusitis, PTSD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and back issues.

If the research can “help in the future with different illnesses, if they can change something to help someone else — like medication or how to handle a particular situation — anything that’s going to help someone else, that’s why I do it,” she said.

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Commemorating the 22nd anniversary of the 9/11 attacks there are several east end remembrance ceremonies this evening:

As reported by Beth Young in EAST END BEACON the Southold Town 9/11 Memorial Committee will hold their Remembrance Ceremony this evening at 6 p.m. in Jean Cochran Park on Peconic Lane in Peconic. Riverhead’s Sound Park Heights Association’s annual 9/11 Vigil will start at 6 this evening, with a memorial procession beginning at Marine Street in Reeves Park and concluding at the memorial at the intersection of Park Road and Sound Avenue. The East Hampton Town Chiefs Association will hold their annual ceremony at Hook Mill Green tonight at 6 p.m., and the Flanders Fire Department will hold their annual 9-11 Memorial Service at Fireman’s Memorial Park at 1459 Flanders Road at 7 this evening.

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Commemorating those who died 22 years ago today from the terrorist attacks upon the World Trade Center and the collapse of the twin towers, the Town of Riverhead this morning will hold a prayer ceremony at 10am at its World Trade Center Memorial Park at the corner of Riley and Edwards Avenue. Nearly 1 in 5 of the dead on September 11, 2001 were Long Islanders — about two-thirds from Nassau County and a third from Suffolk.

Hundreds more died when the third plane crashed into the Pentagon, outside Washington, D.C., and Flight 93 crashed into a field in Pennsylvania, bringing the overall toll to 2,977. Two of the 44 aboard the fourth plane - Flight 93 - were Long Islanders: including a passenger originally from Sag Harbor…Linda Gronlund. (At the World Trade Center ceremony, the 9/11 victims' names, plus the names of those who were killed in the first World Trade Center attack, on Feb. 26, 1993, will be read; the 19 attackers’ names will not, according to museum spokeswoman Hallie Ortiz). Matthew Chayes reports on Newsday.com that the average age of the 9/11 victims who died in the World Trade Center was 39 years old, according to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 3 out of 4 of the victims were male; the rest were female.

The victims ranged in age from toddlers to adults over 85.

In the decades since 9/11, thousands of first responders, laborers, workers, volunteers and others who were at the site have died of illnesses blamed on airborne toxins inhaled at Ground Zero during the months after the attacks.

About 30% of those dead are Long Islanders, according to John Feal, a first responder from Nesconset who lost half of his left foot after working to clear the rubble.

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U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer insists he is pressuring the White House to speed up migrant work permits and boost federal aid to combat New York City’s asylum-seeker crisis — as some fed-up New Yorkers claim the senator and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries have been “lazy” and nearly “invisible” on the issue. “The record is very clear that I have been working at the highest levels, delivering funds for New York and am still fighting for more,” Schumer, the 72-year-old Senate majority leader said in a statement to The NY Post yesterday. “I’ve publicly pushed the administration to accelerate and expand work authorization so that immigrants can support themselves and have repeatedly communicated this to the White House as recent as this past week,” the senior Democrat from New York added. Schumer insisted on Sunday he hadn’t been silent on the growing crisis, pointing to an appearance at the State Fair in Syracuse last month, when he vowed that streamlining the process to allow migrants to get jobs quicker was his top priority. As reported in THE NY POST, Senator Schumer also helped NYC secure $104.6 million in grant funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency in June to cover migrant expenses. But some critics say that money is a drop in the bucket compared to the $12 billion that New York City Mayor Eric Adams predicts the crisis will cost the Big Apple over the next three years. On Saturday, while voicing appreciation for Senator Schumer’s efforts, Mayor Adams said, “This is a national crisis, and we’re going to need national leadership to address it.”

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The Central Pine Barrens Commission’s Wildfire Task Force will host the 26th annual New York Wildfire and Incident Management Training Academy from Oct. 19 through Oct. 29 at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Beth Young reports in EAST END BEACON that this is a great way to get local training on nationally standardized courses in wildland firefighting. The registration deadline is Sept. 30.

“Studies of wildland fire risk in New York State have found that the Central Pine Barrens region is the most at-risk area for fires with the potential to impact communities,” said Central Pine Barrens Commission Executive Director Judy Jakobsen. “Because of this, the Academy, in coordination with its partners at the Suffolk County Fire Academy and Suffolk County Fire, Rescue and Emergency Services, offers courses that directly relate to the risks Long Island volunteer firefighters face.”

To register, view descriptions of all classes offered or learn more about the Academy, go to www.nywima.com. Class registrations must be received by the close of business on Saturday, Sept. 30. Registrations received after that date will incur a late registration fee.

E-mail the Academy at nywima@pb.state.ny.us or call directly at 631-218-1195 with any questions.

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Lance Gumbs, a former Shinnecock Nation tribal trustee, is leading a coalition of Native American tribes from the East and West Coasts of the United States that are raising questions about how the federal government reviews and approves offshore wind farms — and are demanding more of a voice, and a cut of the financial benefits, in the process.

Gumbs, who is the vice president of the National Congress of American Indians said, “There is a real disconnect between what the White House is saying, what the Department of the Interior is saying, and what [the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management] is doing.”

Michael Wright reports on 27east.com that earlier this year, the coalition organized by Gumbs called for a moratorium on wind farm approvals in areas that could impact Native peoples, until more can be done to flesh out the potential negative impacts of the construction on the environment, on marine mammals and on tribes that depend on the sea and marine life for their livelihoods or tribal economies. With just five turbines currently online along the entire East Coast and two wind farms under construction — including South Fork Wind, off Montauk, which will connect to land in Wainscott — the tribes are worried that there are potential impacts that are being glossed over or ignored in the haste of getting more projects through the approval process. Wind farm development dozens of miles away could have negative fallout for coastal tribes like the Shinnecock, Gumbs said. “We are not opposed to wind farms, but they are rushing these things through and we are being left out,” Gumbs said. “This has the ability to affect our livelihoods. They stole land from us, but no tribe has relinquished its water rights. We have every right to be included in these negotiations, including the funding, so we can make informed decisions.”