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Fox News anchor Eric Shawn is opening up about the serious health problems he says have followed him for decades after he spent weeks reporting from the toxic ruins of the World Trade Center following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Shawn, 69, was walking to work in Manhattan on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, when American Airlines Flight 11 roared low above him on its way toward the North Tower.
“I thought it was gonna hit a skyscraper and my mind was playing tricks on me,” Shawn told PEOPLE. “You don’t think you really see what you’re seeing,”
Eric Shawn raced to the Fox newsroom, alerted his colleagues to what he had witnessed and quickly went on the air. Hours later, he was reporting from Ground Zero, where he would spend weeks covering the aftermath of the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil.
“I was there reporting for at least a month, if not longer. We did 12-hour shifts. It was a shocking hellscape,” he recalls. “It was an overwhelming experience — seeing the photographs and seeing it on television from home certainly does not give justice to what I was confronted with and what we saw. It was just monstrous and momentous.”
“I’ve covered war zones and this was by far the worst traumatic thing that a reporter can experience, just by seeing what I saw that first night,” he adds.
But the dangers at Ground Zero did not end when the fires died down.
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Shawn recalled spending long hours surrounded by a “thick haze of choking dust” after the Twin Towers collapsed. Reporters, like first responders working at the site, were given respiratory masks, but Shawn said there was no getting away from the contaminated air.
“I remember the first night thinking, ‘This is not healthy,’ just on the basis of dust. Not even knowing about carcinogens, not knowing about toxic chemicals,” he continues. “And I remember back then thinking, ‘I wonder what’s gonna happen in 20, 30 years from now.’ Well, we’re there now. This is the time period we were concerned about.”
The warning signs came quickly.
Within roughly two months of the attacks, Shawn developed an “uncontrollable cough” and sought medical attention.
“I went to the doctor in November and he said, ‘Oh, you’ve got the World Trade Center cough.’ That’s what we called it at the time.” he recalls. “I thought, ‘I know — it’s a cough from all that dust and smoke. It’ll go away.’ No. The World Trade Center cough actually turned into acute chronic bronchitis…and I suffered from it for years.”
His respiratory problems became severe enough that during one particularly difficult year, Shawn needed two Prednisone shots within 72 hours, despite his doctor telling him the standard was just two shots per year.
He was also diagnosed with gastroesophageal reflux disease, or GERD.
“It felt like I had a golf ball in my throat on and off for years,” he says.
More recently, Shawn was diagnosed with skin cancer, which he attributes to his exposure at Ground Zero to hundreds of chemical, physical, and biological hazards.
Doctors also discovered that his prostate-specific antigen levels were rising rapidly. Shawn said physicians determined he has “the highest level of probable” prostate cancer. He is now under active surveillance, with testing every three months to closely monitor his condition.
“So, I’m certified for cancer under the World Trade Center Health Program,” he says, referring to the federal health care program that provides medical monitoring and treatment to responders and survivors, many of whom have developed various diseases due to their exposure to carcinogens like jet fuel, mercury and asbestos. “I’m just waiting and watching,” he says.
For years, Shawn largely kept the health toll of his 9/11 reporting to himself, including from many of his Fox News colleagues.
Now, ahead of the 25th anniversary of the attacks, the veteran journalist is speaking publicly about his ordeal in hopes of drawing attention to the thousands of responders, survivors, journalists and others who continue to suffer from illnesses tied to their exposure at Ground Zero.
Nearly a quarter-century after Shawn watched Flight 11 pass overhead, the consequences of that morning are still unfolding.
