Whitman maintained that her assurances regarding the airborne contaminants only involved lower Manhattan and not the Ground Zero site. However, first responders at Ground Zero were told that there is nothing to worry about regarding air safety. By 2006, Mount Sinai Hospital released a study showing that several World Trade Center responders were already experiencing lung problems due to air toxin exposure. After the World Trade Center Health Program (WTCHP) was set up in 2011 to oversee those exposed to contaminants at Ground Zero, over 37,000 who registered have been declared sick with respiratory illnesses and cancer, among other diseases. Deaths involving individuals in this list have already exceeded 1,100.