News report on health testing program for WTC workers, 2002

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

errwno.... up material that’s more than 1 percent asbestos. As Leighton said that recommendation applied only to much as 35 percent of the dust may have contained buildings where landlords had not detected enough that much, but labor groups charge that enforcement asbestos to require professional cleaning. of the rules was lax, and federal officials acknowl­ But that qualification wasn’t mentioned on many edge that it was a low priority. health department press releases and fliers posted on Now, after months of saying that indoor cleaning downtown buildings. And the distinction was lost on was landlords’ and residents’ responsibility, federal many residents, who cleaned heavy dust deposits in and local agencies have reversed course. The Envi­ buildings that hadn’t been tested, said Madelyn Wils, ronmental Protection Agency and city Environ­ chairwoman of lower Manhattan’s community board. mental Protection Department announced May 8 •r“At the,time when people were starting to get back they will spend federal funds to professionally clean inrto their homes, it was unclear,” she said. “There the apartment of any resident who requests it. was no leadership from the city, state or federal gov- ernment on this.” Asbestos on pipes Artist Nancy Manter said she is recovering from The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, pneumonia she developed after cleaning inches of which owns the trade center, was about halfway dust from her apartment two blocks from Ground through a multi-million-dollar asbestos-removal Zero. project when the twin towers were attacked. Both “Cancer, of course, is a huge concern,” she said. towers had asbestos fireproofing on heating pipes, in­ “You feel like you’re not being told the truth.” terior spaces and the support columns behind their Volunteers at risk distinctive metal cladding. Port Authority spokes­ man Allen Morrison said. Around Thanksgiving, more than 1,000 Southern Public agencies have tested thousands of dust sam­ Baptist volunteers cleaned apartments around Bat- ples taken in lower Manhattan since Sept 11, tery Park City through a program that sends volun- Up to 35 percent of the samples tested by the EPA teers to disaster areas. had enough asbestos fibers to require professional The city Office of Emergency Management coordi­ cleaning and the use of respirators. Tests conducted nated their efforts and the health department pro­ for the city found those levels of asbestos in only 6 vided volunteers with high-efficiency vacuum clean­ ers and the assurance that the dust was largely safe, percent of the samples. Baptist and health department officials said. As recently as last month, private and public tests Many volunteers labored in paper masks consid­ still detected asbestos in some lower Manhattan ered inadequate for work with asbestos. Some had buildings. respirators that tightly sealed over the nose and Tests by a New York University team also found mouth and purified air using a high-efficiency filter, minimal levels of chromium, dioxin, lead, nickel and bat they were used sporadically or not at all, volun­ polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs. . ■rhe U.S. Geological Survey found that the dust teers and Baptist officials said. could be caustic when mixed with water, apparently “I wore mine the first hour or so, but then it got too because of a substance in concrete. And tests con­ hot and kind of hard to talk,” said Donald Kimbell, a ducted for the city health department found fiber­ 51-year-old retired police officer from Ruston, La. glass, a possible carcinogen, in nearly half of the “Most folks that were in there didn’t wear 'em.” samples. Meanwhile, day laborers — as many as 5,000 by some estimates — cleaned dust from downtown Risks downplayed? apartments for as long as 10 weeks running, said Dr. iabor groups, environmentalists and downtown Steven Markowitz, director of the Queens College residents say that federal and local agencies down­ Center for the Biology of Natural Systems. . played potential risks posed by the dust, leaving resi­ Most workers said employers did not provide res­ dents confused. pirators, said Markowitz, who operated a mobile On Sept. 13, the EPA issued a statement that said: exam room for workers near Ground Zero. Some “Sampling of bulk materials and dust found gener­ workers said they brought their own respirators but ally low levels of asbestos ... the general public were prevented from using them, he said. should be very reassured by initial sampling.” “The employers would tell them not to use the res­ But EPA officials say they also warned residents pirators because it would alarm the other workers,” and cleaning companies that they should presume Markowitz said. the dust had asbestos levels high enough to require One Polish-bom worker said respirators were used professional contractors with respirators to clean up inconsistently in buildings around Ground Zero. heavy deposits. “Some people wear it, some people not, nobody “We knew that there was asbestos in the dust and checking,” said the worker, a certified asbestos han­ the recommendation was to use professional dler who asked to remain anonymous for fear of an­ abatement contractors,” agency spokeswoman gering potential employers. “You should be wearing Bonnie Bellow said. it in every room. Nobody tells us how much asbestos “I never heard EPA say that,” said Jessica Leigh­ inside,” ton, assistant commissioner of the New York City Department of Health. “It was not the assumption we’re working under.” Instead, the city health department said as early as Sept. 17 that residents could clean their own apart­ ments using wet rags, mops and high-efficiency vac­ uum cleaners. Pa(^ao/^3 NYC-WTC_000143021