New York Times article on FEMA performance review

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

City Grappling With WTC Cough AILMENT fromA4 “That’s not at all to suggest there wasn’t a huge Center debris, were harder to dear from the lungs. amount of dust,’ added Mary Mears, another EPA Dr. Marc Wilkenfeld of the Columbia Universi^ treatment to dear her air passages. spokeswoman. Health Sciences Division said he believes the WTC In November, she found hersw rasping for air That may be the point, according to scientists; debris was “frankly corrosive’ and may have dam- when she contracted the flu. At New York Methodist The chemicals or asbestos for which air is tested aged human luim cells in a more direct fashion. He Hospital, the otherwise healthy-actress required sev- may not be to blame. noted that a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and eral hours’treatment to restore normal breathing. Environmental health expert Lung Chi Chen of the Prevention study of city firefiffoters found that most In its more extreme form, WTC cou^ has debUi- New York University School of Medicine is a member WTC cou^ victims also suffered gastrointestinal tated otherwise healthy men and women, accord- of a team analyzing dust, debris and air samples tract irritation, the result of swallowing airborne do­ ing to physicians who have treated them. collected last M. Chen agrees with the EPA that bris.' ’That finding, he argimd, is a sign of corrosive Lake sea anemones that ball up when touched, the there was very little asbestos in the debris; indeed, damage to the gastrointestinal tract airways of these patients recoil from microscopic for- the city Department of Health stopped asbestos in- All of this puts health officials in a too^ posititm. eign objects and constrict It is possible, Kelly and stallation in the very earliest stages of trade center Within days of Sept_11, EPA Director Christie Whit- oihm-.physicianB said, that these p^ple are permanent- construction. However, the clouds contained micro- man said the city's air was safe— a position a spokes- ly injured and will suffer more respiratory problems. scopic shards of glass, much of it coated with con- man later clarified to mean that the air did not con- At the Sept 9 New York Academy of Medicine con- taminants such as soot bacteria, mold and human tain dangerous levels of asbestos or other normally ference, where authorities confirmed’ the coup’s ex- cells. Additionally, pulverized concrete was highly tested toxins. The EPA has maintained that position, istenee. Mount Sinai School ofMedicine occupational alkaline or rife with metallic elements. and all testing and cleanup operations have focused health specialist Dr. Steven Levin said he has treat- Normally, the human lung tends to be an acidic en- on a small pjut of Manhattan, below Canal Street, ed more than 1,000 people who worked in the vironment, with a pH of around 6 to 7. The debris on and a short list of substances, chiefly asbestos. Ground Zero area last felL “It is our impression that Septi 11 had a pH ranging from 9.2 to U.S. Evan a H testing this fall in lower Manhattan shows many have developed inflammatory responses, and hyperventilating individual suffering from severe “there is anythin to indicate we should go out- thatnot so many are really fully well,’ Levin said. “I anxiety, the normal cause of alkalosis of the lung, . side that area,’ Bellow said, then residents from have very few patients who in feet have returned to rarely runs a pH of higher than 7.7. other parte of the city who place their names on jH*e~9Zll^vels of long^fuactiozL’* buxoan lung has & znecbazujnn callod tlw **xsui* EPA list before Oct. 3 naynotified. Resi- ILe^dn’s clinic has identified sinusitis, laryngitis cous escalator,” in which irritating particles trigger a dents outside that zone can call S7^79&-5471. and new-onset ggtHyna in the workers, in addition response called which releases large fer, no residents above Canal Street or in Brook- to the extreme World Trade Center cough. amounts of mucous. The mucous surrounds the trou- lyn have been ruled eligible for such federal services "What you have downwind fin southeasibem Man- bling particles, which are then coughed up. In re- asapartmentcleaningasar^ultofresidential oroc’ hattan and Brooklyn] are people with variable SUS- spouse to extreme pH, coupled with glass and other ir- cupatio^ exp^ure, Columbia’s Wilkenfeld said. eepfibility. And we can’t pr^ct who the susceptibles ritants, airways constrict and the mucous that usual- Rcp. Jrarold Nadler (D-Manhattra), who has criti- z wffl be,’Levin said in an interview. It is predictable, ly encases toxins and aUows them to be expeUed isn’t the EPA’s response to au-qi^ty concerns, said S he argued, that vulnerable people — workers, resi- effective. A dry, nonproductive cough is the result. agency’s focus cm lower Manlmttra is “entir^y, g dents and conunutars who inhaled Ground Zero Dr. Sonia Buist of Oregon Health Sciences Univer- completely arbitrary. There s no scientific basis to it. $ air last fell will suffer health problems. sity in Portland, Ore., has studied the impact of the Nadler said starting last fall, he asked the EPA The New York City Department of Health has 1981 eruption ofMount St. Helens on the lungs of Or- to expand ite testing m the area of focus could be o found little in its air and home sampling to explain egon loggers who worked seasonally in the area in J® snentific catena. „ . _ S syndrome, Assistant Cmnmiasioner ofHealth Dr. the next five years. The ash th^ inKaiod, bke the January, I said, Get a satellite photo. See 5 Jessica Lcjighton said. Onlylperccjnt of sample sites WorldTrade Center debris, was hi^ in groundmass, where the plume went’EPA said, “There « in lower Manhattan were “above EPA standards’ for They experienced lung irritation, and symptoms var- are no satellite photos, Nadler said.in an inter- § asbestos or other legally controlled air pollutants. ied according to the content of the ash breathed, I toe NASA photos m News- g Indeed, EPA spokeswoman Bonnie Bellow said Buist said. Most were restored to full health because to. g even in the hours after the Twin Towers col- the particles were cleared firom their lungs. That is not true, t^EPAs Bellow said, ^e was S lapsed. Now York City air “did not exceed nation- The Mount St. Helens analogy has ite limito- told thati We would have no mason totefl toe con- g al air-quality standards.” On only one late Sep- tions, however. Volcanos produce veryacidic, not al- gressman that they didnt exist when they did. „ ******®

NYC-WTC_000142969