Wall Street Journal article on 9/11 air quality risks

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document Weighing Risks Tests Say Air Is Safe, But Some People Feel Irritants Causing Symptoms Áre Not Known Dangers; Much Remains Uncertain Fearful, the Luekers Leave By MARK MAREMONT And JARED SANDBERG Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREEI JOURNAI, . NEW YORK-In the weeks since Sept. 1, goveroment agencies testing the air near ground zero have reached a nearly. uanimous conclusion: There is no signif- icant long-term health risk for area work- ers and residents. :Yet hundreds, and possibly thousands, of people who live, work or go to school in lower Manhattan have experienced persis- tent sore throats and hacking:coughs. Ařea physicians report a surge in new or worsened asthma cases. How to explain the contradiction? » It appears that government officials and downtown residents may be con- cerned with different threats. The U.S En- Before and After The ripple effects of the terrorist attacks have altered many aspects of people's lives, including work, family and compu- rity life. See articles ou page BI. vironmental Protectivn Agency has con- centrated on known carcinogens and other dangerous materials, including asbestos, dioxin and lead. Most private scientists and physicians corcur with the EPA that, for all but those toiling directly on the cleanup, there probably isn't much risk from these substances. "*. However, the World Trade Center col lapse has stirred up' a cocktail of other unfriendly substances, including airborne cement dust, bits of fiberglass, and a host of chemicals emitted by the plastics, jet fuel and other materials that burnied at the site for more than three months. Some of- these:less-well-understood substances probably have caused the cold-iike symp toins and breathing problems that bave troubled many people near ground zero. according to physictans and researchers;. government is right.that other- wise healthy people are not going to end up dying or in the hospital" jears fiom now, says George D. Thurston, associate professor of environmental medicine at New York University's medical school. But some of the dust and chemicals kicked up by tlie collapse, he says, "turned out to be more irritating than we had thought." Some people seem especially vulnera- bie to environmental irritants because of genetic sensitivities or pre-existing bealth conditions, such as asthma or allergies, according to Paul Lioy, an environmental- health scientist affiliated with Rutgers University and the University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey. Steady Improvement Overall, the air near where the Twin Towers onice stood has improved steadily strice the suicide-jetliner attack. The fires appear to have been extinguished, and the birnt smell has largely disappeared, ex- cept immediately around the site. Muthiah Sukumaran, a pulmonary specialist and director of intensive care at NYU DOWI town Hospital, says that most of the 100 or so patients he has seen with coughs and aşthma-like conditions related to the disas- ter have steadily gotten better with medi- cation. Health experts predict respiratory symptoms will continue to diminish as massive cranes stop clawing at the debris and airborne dust settles. Even this optimistic prognosis: comes with a big dose of caution. Many experts admit that the environmental effects of the -disaster are so complex that health prob- lerns could crop up in the future. One con- cern iș that the vast variety of chemicais and particies swirling in the air may have interacted in unpredictable ways. Scien- tiffc research has detailed the effects of plane crashes, butlding collapses and haz- • ärdous fires-but never the blend of all three, let alone on this scale. "We can't 1ook to any literature or to any studies that aaye Deen done and compare them to any thing that's happened here," says Kath. leen Callahan, the EPA's deputy regional admintstrator for the New York area.™ = The wall Street Journal 1 0F3 02601 Ill Near, Cround Zero Pist Cloud One big uncertatnty, says Dr Lioy, the Rutgers-affiliated scientist, is the impact on the thousands of people caught in the • dust cloud on Sept.. 11. There was littie monitoring of pollution levels that early in the disaster, and "people were breathing in stuff that was far in excess of what anybody would normally be exposed to in their li time," he says. Having analyzed the debris, he believes the dust cloud con- täined-in addition to cement, asbestr.; and fiberglass particles-such suspected carcinogens as polycyclic aromatic hydro- carbons znd other chemical compounds emitted by the.conflagration.| Dr. Lioy says he and EPA scientists plan to spend a yèar studying. exposure levels to sub stances w the massive cloud.i Another concern is whether relatively brief exposure to certain chemicals ot heavy metals released in the disaster could cause developmental or other problems in imborn children. At Columbia University's Center for Children's Ervirormental Please Turn to Page 44, Columnz: Continued From First Page: Health, researcher Frederica Perera is Te cruiting women who were pregeant at the time of the disaster for a study that wil follow them and theit babies for several years. An additional source of anxiety for some residents and employees neat ground zero is the continuing threat that Ileanup workers may reintroduce contami- nants into the air by using improper meth- ads. (See related article this page:). In part because of the uncertainty ibout ait quality, many businesses and esidents have yet' to return to the błocks surrounding ground zero. Econotay.com, & sonsulting firm in West Chester, Pa., esti- nates the disaster will cost New York $30 pillion in lost economic activity this year and next. "If we're goine to hold up down- town Manhattan as the tunancial capital of the wo-ld, bring back the residents and recreate he 24-hour community, we've got to convince people that it is safe, '"says Sheldon Silver, speaker of New York's state assembly: "We don't have that yet." Since the attack, the EPA has con ducted more than 7,500 tests for 300 carcin- ogens and other dangerous substances, and the findings have so far beeri gener- ally encouraging. For example, only 29 tests for airborne asbustos, out of 3,50( since Sept. 11, have shos.a levels above the tough federal threshold for allowing children back into a school building after an asbestos cleanup, the EPA says. Asbes tos, which was in fire retardant in part of the Twin Towers, can cause severe breath ing problems and cancer when inhaled over a period of years. NYC-WTC_000141794