It was not paywalled for me. To your other point, sure, but you can see the normal rate of cancer in a population over time and then see the spikes in the years directly after 2001.
The distinction is that the strongest evidence is among responders, workers, residents, and others who were directly exposed, rather than showing that cancer suddenly increased across all of NYC.
Gotcha, I guess that does point at more impact from the event itself. There is a login-wall for me (not technically paywall), asking me to create an account.