EPA Lead Cleanup Policy for Homes, Sept 2001

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

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E.P.A. to Lead Indoor Cleanup Near Collapse Continued From Page Al their air tested. around the site and the smoke from “Rather than doing this in the first the fires that burned for more than couple of months, when it should three months after the attack, n - in the intervening months. have been done, people have been Physicians who have treated peo- Extensive testing of outdoor air in living and working in these spaces,” pie with respiratory complaints say the neighborhoods and business Mr. Iwanowicz said. that although some downtown office areas downtown has for the most But one public official who became workers and residents have had se- part shown little ca ise for any long­ a particularly sharp critic of the vere reactions - mostly short-term term health concerns. government’s response. Represents irritation of their lungs and throats But because relatively few indoor tive Jerrold Nadler of New York, _ the numbers are relatively low. spaces have been tested, public said last night that he thought the Que physician who has treated health experts and disaster adminis­ policy was a huge step forward Md mai-y people with World Trade Cen- trators, not to mention residents, should reassure resident that their ter-related illnesses. Dr. Stephen M. also really do not know what the health and welfare would be taken Levin of the Mount Sinai School of state of indoor air quality is. Some , ... „ Medicine, said at a conference last public health experts who had the U month hl Manhattan that he believed plans described to them said a cen­ t watch that they do it residents should be alarmed tral question is whether the new poli­ ?\SUiom^°far me^ pi «hout their increased risk of long- cy, coming nearly eight months after the attack, has already missed its m term Ulness from the disaster. comment , interviews with opportunity. "Our worry is that this proposal is InZ^eral. pubUc health experts the iMt ei^t months, coming too late in the game,” said have divided the population of p^ple have continued to resontde Peter Iwanowicz, director of envi­ who were potenti^ly exposed to con- about how cleM is cle^ Among the ronmental health at the American taminants from the trade center into ^sues that will probably emerge un- Lung Association of New York State. two main groups: those who worked der the new cleanup policy is wheth­ Mr. Iwanowicz said he had no reason er volunteered at ground zero and ar residents will consider a building to believe that residents should be everyone else. clean if only some of the apartments. alarmed by the change in policy. But Ground zero workers, especially but not all, participate in the E.PA. the fact is, he said, people have not those who did not wear proper respi- program since dust, as anyone who had enou^ information to assess rato/y ’protection, are considered the has ever wielded a broom can attest, their own risks, unless they have had most exposed because they were in tends to move around, tracked from the resources and inclination to have the midst of the dust that blew place to place. "

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