Meet Dr. Jacqueline Moline, who's on front line of fight to heal 9/11-related health problems

Dr. Jacqueline Moline hasn't walked in her patients' shoes, but for 23 years, she has tried to walk alongside them. 

From delivering health care to conducting research, her work caring for those affected by the 9/11 attacks has taken her from hospital rooms to Capitol Hill, where she urged the federal government to recognize and cover the cost of the patients' ailments.

Many became ill after more than a million tons of wreckage from the World Trade Center continued to burn for months and release toxins in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks. The collapse of the Twin Towers kicked up a massive dust plume with a mix of lead, asbestos, glass fibers, metals, fuel, concrete and other materials that posed health hazards.

Moline, 61, was part of a team of patient advocates, survivors and physicians who spent nearly a decade pushing for the federal government to provide free medical coverage for people with health problems resulting from the toxic exposure. 

"When you see someone who's ill, and the courage that they're expending when dealing with their illness, they don't give up. They fight for it, they fight to get better, they fight the process, they fight the bureaucracy," she said. "If you can help in that journey, then that's part of our goal in medicine as well."

Now the director of the Northwell Health Queens World Trade Center Health Program, one of several regional health programs that treats 9/11 survivors, Moline said she committed herself early on to advocating for those with 9/11-related health struggles.

A major success was marked in 2011, when Congress created the World Trade Center Health Program, which was reauthorized in 2015 and 2019. It provides free medical treatment and monitoring for conditions that include 69 types of cancer for more than 132,000 survivors of the attacks and those who responded to the aftermath at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and outside Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where one of the hijacked planes crashed.

The first wave

Moline, who also serves as senior vice president of Occupational Medicine, Epidemiology and Prevention at Northwell Health, said at age 6, she knew she wanted to become a doctor. It was then that her father, a chemist, began taking her to a lab where she would watch him mix chemicals, spurring a love of science.

She graduated from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine and earned a master's of science degree in community medicine from the institution previously known as Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

Married with 19-year-old twins, the New York City resident is a professor at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell.

After the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, Moline, then a doctor at The Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan, helped fit federal workers with breathing apparatus so they could investigate the site.

On Sept. 11, 2001, she began treating patients while working at the same hospital and soon became familiar with what would become known as the persistent World Trade Center cough. After that, it wasn't long before she said the first wave of 9/11-related health problems became apparent: inflamed sinuses, breathing difficulties and gastroesophageal reflux disease.

"We had people who were in the prime of their lives, in fantastic shape that no longer were able to do the physical activities that they were able to do before," Moline said, adding that psychological distress also became part of some of the patients' struggles.

Because asbestos was used during the 1968 to 1970 construction of the World Trade Center's north tower before laws banned the known carcinogen, cancer was of prime concern from the start, she said.

"We wanted to make sure that people got care by people who understood that exposure related diseases could manifest somewhat differently," Moline added.

The second wave

The physician said she soon began working with elected officials and labor leaders to secure necessary funding, and in April 2002, a medical surveillance program for rescue and recovery workers, construction workers and volunteers was funded for a year. 

The initial program was extended for several more years but came with a caveat. Doctors weren't allowed to treat patients until 2006, when they finally received the approval to do so from the federal government, according to Moline’s 2019 testimony at a congressional hearing to reauthorize the Sept. 11 Victim Compensation Fund.

For care, patients were referred to other clinicians or through a World Trade Center treatment program spurred by philanthropic donations, her testimony also showed. Moline said she continued her quest to expand access to treatment.

"It involved going and spending a lot of time walking up and down the halls of Congress and the congressional buildings and meeting with people all over the country to try to make them understand it was a national issue," she recalled.

From 2006 through 2009, Moline said a federal government grant permitted the initial monitoring programs to also treat patients. Meanwhile, asthma rates continued to increase as well as gastrointestinal issues, PTSD and other diseases like cancer, according to Moline. She called that the second wave of problems for patients.

While extended until 2090, the World Trade Center Health Program now faces a projected $2.7 billion funding shortfall at a time when Moline said a third wave of health problems has hit.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-Bayport) said recently they see a pathway for Congress this year to pass legislation they sponsor to cover a projected shortfall that would start at the end of 2027.

Among the third wave of problems are cardiovascular and autoimmune conditions, which Moline said have "long, lasting consequences" that can manifest after decades of exposure.

A petition that includes Moline's signature along those of other physicians is pending before the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health that, if successful, would add those conditions to coverage under the World Trade Center Health Program, Newsday previously reported.

'Staunch advocate'

Manhattan attorney Michael Barasch, who represents thousands of members of the 9/11 community, said Moline's dedication to patients is clear.

"This came across when she testified before Congress and helped convince them to do the right thing and pass legislation which permanently extended and fully funded the WTC program. None of that happens unless you have people like Dr. Moline who are going to say, 'Look, there is real science behind this,'" he said.

John Feal, a former demolition supervisor seriously injured at Ground Zero, said Moline has been "a staunch advocate" for those she treats.

"She takes her job personally. Other doctors should embrace and emulate her compassion and empathy for sick and dying first responders. If I had to put four people on the Mount Rushmore of the 9/11 community, she would be one of them," added Feal, leader of Nesconset-based FealGood Foundation, which advocates for 9/11 first responders.

Retired NYPD Det. Glen Doyle, 69, is one of Moline's patients and overcame a 2019 diagnosis of Merkel cell carcinoma. After 9/11, the Lindenhurst resident worked at Ground Zero and the Staten Island landfill where tons of World Trade Center wreckage was transported. 

"She told me if there are any issues, you just give us a call and we'll take care of you, any time or day. If people try to string her along, she'll still push for funding and get to the bottom of these diseases," Doyle said.

Dr. Gita Lisker, a critical care and pulmonology doctor in New Hyde Park who also cares for 9/11 patients, said Moline does "everything to make sure that patients have everything that they need."

For her part, Moline said satisfaction comes from knowing the WTC Health Program has provided care to thousands of people.

"For most of my career, I felt like I was on a mission to try to improve people's health … and basically to educate them and to make their lives a little better," she said.