Letter from NYU Hospital to OSHA regarding health complaints, Nov

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

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week later, since many of the HVAC Units are not fed from the emergency generator. In addition, the Engineering Department has also installed two (2) additional filter media on all air intakes to the Hospital. The first filters air before entering the Hospital's indoor air plenums. The second filter media is activated charcoal, and is installed over each air damper before entering the air handling unit. As a result this action has significantly reduced the number of internal filter changes for each of the Hospital's air handlers, while ensuring odor control and additional air filtration of the outside air. The Engineering Department has also procured three (3) large HEPA portable air scrubbers, capable of cleaning over 2,500 cubic feet per minute. Two of these have been installed inside our entrance vestibules to 'control dust. entering the facility. Another air scrubber, along with smaller HEPA air cleaners, have been located in critical areas throughout the Hospital. Our environmental consultants began performing air quality tests, measuring both dust levels and asbestos levels within and outside the Hospital. The test results meet or exceed OSHA and EPA guidelines for dust and asbestos. Representatives of NYU School of Medicine's Department of Environmental Medicine began on September 12s`, and will continue for sometime, taking outside air quality readings for a National Institute of Health grant studying air quality and the impact on `Environmental Health Issues Related to the World Trade Center Disaster'.

Immediately after speaking with your office on October 291, I conducted a the entire Hospital with Adrianna Fargelli, our Director of walk-through investigation of Housekeeping. We did not observe any signs of poor housekeeping, build up or collection of dust in any of our clinical or non-clinical area, and the filters on the Hospital's air handling units were clean, with no signs of overloading. Attached you will find detailed air quality, monitoring reports, and presentations from CTSI, the hospital's environmental consultant, Lawrence B. Malloy, a consultant for an off site property in which the hospital leases approximately 17,000 GSF at 100 William Street, and NYU School of Medicine's Departmental of Environmental Medicine. Please feel free to review these reports, concerning both indoor and outdoor air quality.

I hope this information is helpful in addressing this matter. If you have any questions or comments please do hesitate to contact me in the Engineering Office at NYU Downtown 212.312 14. Hospital at

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c I Rawl' s Director of Engineering & Proje) c+~► jQa loo, Attached

Cc: Leonard Aubrey, President/CEO (w/o attachments) Paul Yellin, MD — Sr. VP & Chief of Medicine (w/o attachments) Krys Candelaria, RN — Sr. VP Patient Operations/CNO (w/o attachments) William Lee, VP Human Resources (w/o attachments) Debra Scbron, Chief of Pathology & Chair of the Environment of Care Committee (w/o attachments) Michael Barbarito, Associate Director of Safety (w/o attachments)

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