WTC firefighter memorial article, Sep 2001

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

In the weeks following Sept. 11, hun­ X muDoowf dreds of tests were done by governmental agencies, including the U.S. Environmen­ tal Protection Agency, the state Depart­ ment of Health and the city Office of the dust, like stirring it up with an ordi­ nary vacuum cleaner. The dust would have to be cleaned up with appropriate protective measures.”

iBisMLirafii Emergency Management. The results showed that, for the most part, levels of asbestos and other potentially harmful materials were below levels that posed an Despite such concerns, however, much of the removal of potentially hazardous dust is being handled in an amateurish and haphazard way, according to downtown

BUT GOUGHS ABOUND immediate or long-term risk. Whi le there’,s no reason to believe that those numbers are inaccurate, some scientists say that fai more research is necessary before deciding 1 community leaders. “There has been a completely uncoordinated effort to clean up that the health risks are minimal. a lot of the dust that settled on windowsills Despite E.RA. Assurances, “Sometimes it looks to me that the and roofs and apartments,” said Madelyn Wils, chair of Community Board 1. Many Still Complain E.P.A. and city agencies are more con­ cerned with keeping people from panicking “Basically we have had thousands of peo­ Of Respiratory Clogs ' than they are with providing any meaning­ ple who still haven’t cleaned their apart­ ments properly, when we know that there ful data,”..said one scientist who works for a federally funded reseafcE~and- was asbestos and other materials among JERRY NADLER SAYS HE’S ED develqrment center involved with one of the studies of contaminants downtown. the initial debris. Because people haven’t gotten enough direction on how “They’re saying that there’s nothing to to deal with this, they’ve gone around Many Insist They Have Headaches; worry about, but there’s no way they’ve One Word Still Floating: Asbestos been able to test every spot where studies have indicated that there might be danger­ BY Josh Benson ous asbestos or other materials." Other scientist.s involved with re­ ‘People have gotten sick from The fire where the World Trade Center once stood is extinguished; the city has searching the potential hazards expressed unease with one of the central premises of this, getting headaches.’ erected a viewing platform for the benefit of the agencies’ conclusions that everything -Madelyn IFi/s, ground-zero tourists; and former Mayor is all right—namely that asbesto.s and Rudolph Giuliani has already outlined his other potentially hazardous materials are chair of Community Board 1. vision for a grand monument at the site. only dangerous if airborne. “The presence It has become a point of pride for leaders ot asbestos in dust is not necessarily a sig­ brushing off their canopies and sweep­ of the city, the state and the nation, deter­ nificant health hazard,” reads the E.P.A, ing their roofs, putting this dust right back mined to put a brave face on things, that the Web site. “The dust must become airborne into the air, onto cars, and back into peo­ scene of the Sept. 11 attack has become an : and be inhaled for it to cause significant ple’s apartments through air filters. Even almost normal part of the New York people who cleaned their apartments or landscape. health problems.” The dust—which was spread not only businesses are having to re-clean.” But many of the elected officials who Ms, Wils was among a group of local represent the areas hit most heavily by the over outdoor surface.s in lower Manhat­ tan, but also into cars, apartments and officials that commissioned an indepen­ events of Sept. 11, as well as some^xperts dent gathering of dust samples from resi- nooks on building exteriors—is in fact who were charged with examining the fall­ harmless as long as it lays dormant. The out, have been urging just about anyone problem, according to some experts, is who will listen to take a closer look at what that such dust is made airborne quite eas- is happening in lowerManhattan. They say that the understandable quest for normalcy carries the risk of papering over potentially ily when disturbed by anything from a hazardous problems, including contami­ gust of wind to a well-meaning building nation by asbestos and a potentially toxic superintendent with a broom. “Certainly cocktail of materials thrown together after asbestos is not an issue if it remains in the the collapse ofthe towers. In addition, sev­ eral scientists who researched the contam­ ination issue called into question some of the surface dust,” said Roger Clark, a researcher at the U,S. Geological Survey who oversaw a study commissioned by the E,P,A, that detected pockets of Neu? conclusions reached by the government about the environmental safety of areas asbestos and other materials. The concern is about whether you hit a patch of ‘/Orlc Observer around the World Trade Cenj(il\ “We’ve ton urging the governmental asbestos and might get a lot of it airborne agencie,s to do more environmental testing quickly and breathe that in, or if you use some other method that could concentrate on the sites, but they really haven’t listened to local officials on that,” said Representa­ tive Jerrold Nadler, whose district includes the World Trade Center site, “They still haven’t done the breadth of testing neces­ M-oa sary to allay people’s rational fears.”

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