Wall Street Journal article on FDNY health exams, Jan 2002

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

; immune systems, makin i nerable to poUutants wouldn’t ordinarily affet emitted by burning fuel and some types ot . 1#. Mere broadly, some I . plastics and can cause leukemia. As^ re­ caay predisposed to irr cently as mid-Decernber, EPA monitoring bome substances, helpin equipment at the disaster site measured they may be suffering i benzene levels 400 times as high as the while- others aren’t, scie agency’s safety standard for continuous M. Brooks, an asthma exposure over one year. The chemical dis­ University of' South F sipates quickly, the EPA , says, but the school, says prior studies agency has cautioned cleanup workers to betwen 10%and20%of tt wear respirators. what he calls “hyper-resj Drs; Alarie and Dalton both say the Thal means that cells in majority of people exposed to low levels of breathing passages are i environmental irritants, including VOCs, environmental irritants. eventually become acclimated to them, people don’t know they hi and symptoms recede.. . f . although they may have 1 Stai, the EPA’s Ms. Callahan says the allergies, he says. agency has decided to start measuring Dr. Brooks says his c again sorai for the compounds in the shown that environmen blocks around ground zero. The agency can trigger asthma in thh also is expand!^ testing for some other lion, and he theorizes tl compounds. It will soon be looking at form­ near ground zero. If Ire; aldehyde, a powerful irritant and possiWe steroids and other drugs. carcinogen that can be produced by the these people will return burning of humerous materials, including sure health condition. furniture and carpets. Yet to some area resid Beyond VOCs. the gases and particles • tions provide little reass floating around lower Manhattan- may ■ no way you can implode a have combined in another way to cause ofoffice space and notha^ respiratory irritatibn. some scientists say. isaysUonnaLueker, who i Sulfur dioxide, a common air pollutant blocks south of the Worlc that comes from burning fuel, normally is the weeks after the coll; mostly' filtered out by the nasal passages. husband ventured back t But in the post-Sept 11 air, sulfur dioxide to retrieve belongings an from the combustion of jet fuel and the sinus infections and sore diesel burned by cleanup vehicles may The couple, in their i have attached to particles of other matter ' two-year-old boy have i that mdve deeper into the throat or lungs. East River to Brooklyr according to NYU’s hr. Thurston. from now, I don’t want n .lung,” Ms.' Lueker says. dmtrUm

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