Sacramento Bee article on NYC air hazards, Oct 2001

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document 1

The Sacramento Bec - sacbee.com ~ N.Y. air hazards found

broiled the compressed, pulverized mass for weeks. In the super-heated rubble the material patient, the Placer County disintegrated into extremely small particles, which were released into the air for weeks. Sheriffs Department said Tuesday. "It's like having a large power plant at ground level with no stack," Cahill said. Yuba County supervisors UC Davis released its findings amid mounting questions of why firefighters, cleanup workers place two more health and some residents are plagued by chronic coughing and other respiratory problems if the air officials on leave truly has been safe. , MARYSVIliE^Jwp. more Yuba County Health Cahill's study has not been published nor peer-reviewed. The EPA, while aware of the work, and Human Services has not seen the data. Department officials — health services director The EPA came under heavy criticism Monday during a U.S. Senate subcommittee hearing for telling New Yorkers the pollution posed no problem, according to news reports. Beverly Craig and programs manager Carolyn EPA regional administrator Jane Kenny said the agency "used the most extensive data ever" Williams ~ have been in assessing air quality in the neighborhood around the World Trade Center site. placed on administrative leave, authorities said In New York, at least 2,500 of the 10,000 members of the Fire Department have respiratory Tuesday. problems, said Tom Manley, health and safety officer for the Uniformed Firefighters Association, their labor union. He said about 700 are out on medical leave. Huge display of heart: Tiny infant survives In following standard monitoring protocols, EPA officials passed over what many health groundbreaking surgery experts consider the deadliest air pollutants: invisible "very fine" and "ultra-fine" particles Her chest is the size of an that can slip past the body's defenses, lodge deep in the lungs and possibly pass into the adult's palm, her once- bloodstream to invade and weaken the heart. defective heart no larger than a grape. Some research has linked exposure of fine particles to chronic respiratory disease and premature deaths from heart attacks, asthma, emphysema and other illnesses. What price health? Health care inflation is on So small are the particles that it would take 1 billion to fill die period at the end of this the rise again, and unlike sentence. the last cycle of A weeks-long inundation of fine particles would be especially threatening to people with skyrocketing employee lung and heart conditions, said Kent Pinkerton of UC Davis, an expert on the health effects of health insurance premiums particulate pollution. a decade ago, this time around there's nothing on "They are going to be the ones most at risk," Pinkerton said. "But for most people who are the horizon that promises healthy, they probably would be able to handle it." to get costs back under control. The EPA is considering updating its pollution standard to accoimt for the finest particles, Raymond Werner, the agency's regional chief of air monitoring programs, said in an Body Talk interview Monday. The EPA collected fine particles around the World Trade Center site for Q; It's cold outside, and future reference. I'm looking for ways to stay in shape indoors. A But the science of collecting, measuring and assessing the health effects of such tiny particles gym is financially out of is young, and Werner said the agency lacks data. the question right now, and videos are boring. Any "The health community hasn't established evidence that there's a direct health effect," he said. suggestions? If not conclusive, the evidence is worrisome, said Robert Nolan, a specialist on particulate Other Views: Manage pollution at the City University of New York in Brooklyn. health costs with driig-

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