DOH/DEP asbestos fact sheet draft, 105 Duane Street

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

CONTRADICTORY ASBESTOS TESTING GUIDANCE

Impossible instructions from NYC DEP

The NYC Department of Environmental Protection (NYC DEP) gave impossible and unsafe instructions to owners of buildings. Furthermore, the instructions violated the standards set by the federal EPA. The NYC DEP advised building owners' to test dusts inside buildings to see if they were over 1%. They said that if the dusts were over 1%, a professional ç `~ asbestos abatement contractor should be used for the cleanup: ,'\ç0(" EPA Is using the 1% definition in eva luating exterior dust samples in ~s~ near the World Trade Center. Ali affected land brds have been the Lower Manhattan area instructed to test dust samples within their buildings utilizing this standard. Landlords were notified that they should not reopen any building until a competent professional had properly In spected their premise. If more than 1% asbestos was found and testing and cleaning was necessary, it had b be performed by certified pers onn ei.

Unless the windows were blown out by the blast, interior dusts are in too thin a layer to enable them to be scooped up into a jar or bag. Only dusts that are in "bulk" form, which can be put into a bag or jar, can be tested for the percentage of asbestos.

If there is only a thin, visible surface dusting, or even an invisible layer of dust, you are forced to use what are called "wipe" samples or "microvacuum" samples. Wipe tested for the number of asbestos fibers per area, not a percentage of samples can only be asbestos in the total dust. Microvacuum samples are also typically only analyzed for number of structures per area, although there is a rarely used, very expensive ASTM method for microvacuum samples that can sometimes be employed to give mass concentration - percent values.

Laboratory results for settled dust layers are reported as "asbestos structures/square (structures/cm2)." This cannot be converted into a percentage of asbestos. Thus, centimeter it is almost impossible for building owners to even test for the 1% level in the first place. See the last section of this memorandum for more information on asbestos sampling and analysis techniques NYC DEP Instructlons also contrary to stated EPA standard for the cleanup 111k 5 CON re S 1S The NYC DEP instructions also reversed the decisionby the federal EPA that r/ Q asbestos levels CJU P should be non-detectable. After the disaster, the federal EPA declared that it was applying the S \`\J`' most stringent standard, namely the 70 asbestos structures per millimeter of air o,6'Q . in the Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act (AHERA).2 This "70" level is the lowest level (ha that can be detected in air using the AHERA test method,because of the background level of OT asbestos in the ar l e~ ~\~ filter through which the air is drawn. In other words, tl*,jevel EPA stated that it required was Il rffi NO desectsbie asbestos, not 1% or lower.

p(~ EPA regulations gu apply the 1 /o level to the asbestos containing materials themselves, such as 0 mU Q. N a insulation or asbestos floor tiles, not to the dusts that would result from the presence somewhere in the building of asbestos containing materials (ACM). EPA assumed that Q the dusts resulting from the presence of these ACM somewhere in the building would have much lower levels of

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