DOH/DEP asbestos fact sheet draft, 105 Duane Street

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

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Miriam Songster P11 New York, NY 10007 February 2, 2002

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg City Hall New York, NY 10007

Dear Mayor Bloomberg,

Yesterday I attended a news conference held by the EPA Ombudsman and the NY Environmental Law Project. After hearing from Congressman Nadler, who has been doing his job and paying attention to the concerns of local citizens, the Ombudsman has started looking into the EPA's performance following the WTC disaster. He appears to be finding out what local residents already know - that the EPA, DEP, and DOH all have done a terrible disservice to the residents and workers of lower Manhattan. Testing has been inadequate. Some test results have been surpressed while others have been misrepresented to the public. WTC clean-up crews were not protected. Residents were not informed of hazards and were in fact told that air quality was fine when the EPA appears to have known that this was completely untrue.

So where does this leave all of us who live or work downtown? Many of us are suffering from health effects. We are often trapped in our buildings by leases that landlords refuse to cancel. Clean-up is not happening because EPA, DEP, and DOH have been completely lax - even in enforcing the standards that they have, never mind attempting to actually deal creatively with this unprecedented situation. In fact I myself have experienced the indifference of the DEP and DOH first hand when they reluctantly sent inspectors to 105 Duane St. It seemed that the inspectors believed that they were doing us a big favor by even showing up. They made it quite clear that they thought the residents were wasting their time. This indifference on the party of City officials has continued, despite the results of independent testing that have confirmed the presence of toxic materials In our building. This testing was initiated by residents who hired several independent industrial hygenists and structural engineers to test their apartments for toxic materials. Both asbestos and fiberglass, the latter in consistently alarming levels, have been found. I would like to encourage you to work with Federal, State and local officials and agencies, as well as residents and workers, to come up with a solution to lower Manhattan's toxicity problems. This will undoubtedly take a great deal of effort and not a small amount of creativity, as the probl ms are large and unlike anything the City government has dealt with previously. However, believe that solutions can be found - ones that are not merely covering things up so that Ianlandbrds and businesses do not lose money!

ely,

T m Songster

NYC-WTC 000125881