9/11 'Dust Lady,' Marcy Borders, Dies From Stomach Cancer, Believes It Was Caused By Pollutants
Marcy Borders, the woman in the iconic “dust lady” photograph circa 9/11, has died of stomach cancer, Time reported. She was 41.
Border became known as the dust lady after a picture surfaced of her covered in ash. She had been working on the 81st floor of One World Trade Center when American Airlines Flight 11 struck the building a few stories above her. While she fled the building in time before it collapsed, the attack would cause her to develop depression and problems with substance abuse.
In a 2011 interview with The New York Post, Borders said her “life spiraled out of control.” She panicked every time she saw an airplane, a man on the building — she lost sleep over bin Laden for years. The same year she gave that interview was also the year she checked herself into rehab to get sober. Then, when President Obama announced on TV bin Laden was dead, Borders said “now I have peace of mind.”
She told the Jersey Journal she was diagnosed with stomach cancer in August 2014, which she believes stemmed from the pollutants she was exposed to on the day of the attacks, having never developed serious illness before in her life. As Medical Daily has previously reported, more than 1,100 people who worked or lived near WTC have been diagnosed with cancer after 9/11. First responders have also faced increased risk for illness.
Some experts don't believe there’s sufficient evidence that says 9/11 increased cancer exposure, but there are some who argue carcinogens, such as asbestos and benzene, were among the several chemical compounds released in the dust surrounding ground zero. There’s also the fact cancer doesn’t develop as quickly as, say, asthma. Leukemia, for example, can take five to six years to develop, CNN said — solid tumors can take up to 20 years.
"Please keep my family, the Borders family, in prayer for we lost our very own hero Marcy Borders," her family wrote on Facebook. "May God comfort us in our time of sorrow."