A large study in the United States will look at the long-term health of people who were children during the September 11 attacks in New York City. On 11 September 2001, around 25,000 children lived or went to school near the World Trade Center, where the Twin Towers collapsed. The study will be managed by the World Trade Center Health Program and will focus on people who were 21 years old or younger at the time, including babies who were not yet born but exposed to dust while in the womb.

This study is happening because past research mostly looked at adults, such as firefighters and rescue workers. Experts do not know much about how dust and smoke affected children, whose bodies were still growing when the disaster happened. The United States government passed a law in 2022 to make sure young people would be studied as well.

As a result, researchers will follow these children, compare their health to people who were not exposed, and try to understand if breathing in toxic air caused problems. The study may help answer long-standing questions for these people and could also help improve safety for children in future disasters.