EPA press release on WTC cleaning hotline launch, June 2002

2 -< O

e Concern Measuring The Mercury Indoor and outdoor air tests of lower « OUT 2

s Over RS o o Manhattan by consultant Uday Singh « 1 Canal St. & OUTI •isw as Broadways fa A. O o in March and April showed mercury roadings much higher than .015 ly Reade St. ' i ? O) benchmark levels. Here are five locations tested March 29. .013 mpcm i lujj S s

Mercury g> All figures in milligrams per cubic meter (mpcm) OUTgwRS o City Hall Park o o c .008 mpcm BENCHMARKS FOR OUTDOORS 3 CP .00045 to .00048 3 Ambient mercury concentration tn I Tests show high Manhattan, from 1996 EPA study .01 to .015 Background concentrations observed 'tor,sr

levels near site In industrial settings. .00104 For concentrations of fine mercury ______ I ELEVATOR a 67 Liberty St.- I fl APARTMENT N 80 John St, .(HIT mpcm ^5-

By Graham Rayman particulate in non-industrial urban Il .015 mpcm BATHROOM STAFF WRI TER environments, from 1997 EPA paper to .007 mpcm A series of teats in tower Manhattan by an indepen­ Congress dent consultant found surprising mercury levels up to seven months after the Sept. 11 collapses. BENCHMARK FOR INDOORS New Jersey-based consultant, Uday Singh, who has .0003 testified in court as an expert on trade center dust and has been doing environmental testing for more than a decade, took the readings in apartments and street lo­ Federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry inhalation reference concentration -S' cations, including City Hall Park, in March and April. “Wlien compared with mercury concentrations ob­ served in non-industrial urban environments, the mer­ cury vapor concentrations in lower Manhattan were greater by a factor of 1,000 to 1 million,” he said. “It ' more sensitive testing device. bW’ points to a potential for chronic exposure, and it is im­ Singh’s results seem to add another question to the portant that further studies be undertaken immediate­ overall environmental puzzle in lower Manhattan. Newsday / JusUn Gilbert ly” Paul Bartlett, an expert in the dispersion of toxins Medicine Said she is skeptical the elevated levels in Singh theorizes that the force of the collapses and at Queens College, not^ that mercury can be very dif­ the officers blood were related to Ground Zero. She the heat of the fires bonded the toxic substance into ficult to track and that distribution over a given area is said it wasj more likely that the officers were exposed th6 finely ground,I, abrasive dust from the collapses. often uneven. “These are fairly high levels compared to elsewhere, perhaps from eating shellfish contaminat­ The concentrations, he said, what you’d find in a background situation, which ed with methylmercury. n were higher in cool, dusty means that there is a source," he said. “Whether there She cautioned that findings like Singh’s cannot be BB areas than in sunny areas. is a connection to WTG dust should be determined.” rB a toxicologist with the Envi-’ entirely attributed to Ground Zero exposure. "! think Still, Bartlett said, “The main significance is that eB ronmental Protection Agency they [the EPA] need to do a lot more testing ofmercury an app) opinate response would be to look for other po­ tential .^i-urces,” Moline said. M met with Singh on Tuesday in the area. We have focused on asbestos, now the “The resdlts are definitely a cause for concern,” said tB after he provided his results to focus should turn to other substances.” Sudhir Jain ef the Lower Manhattan Tenants Coali­ the agency last week. Earlier this year, a handful of Port Authority police tion. “The EPA heeds to take the data seriously.” EPA spokeswoman Mary officers were removed from trade center duty after Singh’s teport is available online at www.industri- n Mears said more comprehen- blood tests showed elevated mercury levels. John Mc- al-hygiene.com. sive readings need to be Ausland of the Port Authority Police Benevolent Asso­ (4cwadny / Mnisra staninn taken, and the agency agreed ciation said the cause remains unclear. Uday Singh to assist Singh in obtaining a Dr. Jacqueline Moline of the Mount Sinai School of

& <£> oa