Sacramento Bee article on NYC air hazards, Oct 2001

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document The Spicramento Bee - sacbee.com -- N.Y. air hazards found coating on some of the north tower's steel frame. The UC Davis sampling found no asbestos fibers small enough to be inhaled. Nor did it turn up worrisome levels of toxic metals. Case said the emphasis on asbestos turned out to be misplaced. "What happened to the glass and concrete?" he asked. "There is no question that it was inhaled. How much? By whom? With what immediate and long-term effects?" Case predicted that the health fallout from the World Trade Center attack will continue • indefinitely. "Regrettably," he said, "what we have here is a human experiment on a grand scale." About the Writer The Bee's Edie Lau can be reached at (916) 321-1098 or [email protected]. EMAIL THIS PAGE E PRINT THIS PAGE NEWSLETTERS| A MAKEMY HOMEPAGE; North tower South tower Danger at Ground Zero The Sept 11 destruction of the Warld Trade Center not only blackened New York's sky and powdered the cilr gray, i also saturated its air with an extraordinatily high concentration of dangerous "wery fine" and "uttra-fine" partides, according to Uniersty of Caliomia, Davis, sclentisis Om rronday, UCD re eased resutts of meir air sampüne, conducted in Octoder trom a reoitop about a smile northeast of Ground Zero. Collapse dusts lower Manhattan 1 The 1 10 story south tower tipped south crumblad and ell with such force that it pulveriued tons of concrete and glass into a fine posder. 12 The partictes were dispersed in huge cloucts, mostly by vind from the subsequent collapse of the twin north tower 3The north tower plummeted siraight down at abou 120 mph, pancaking into a 70-foot-deep hol Tiny threats ollen greir The air around Ground 0 micren oZerois laden with Tnustsally high "Coasse" partioie: oncemrations of 10 microns resphrable particles ol concreta, glass and other ne' partcl materfals. Particles -25 micror smaller than 2.5 microns Very fine part are posemially - mkn dangerous. rutra-fine" paructe: 0,09 micrond Very fine" particies can pass through the airways and ).. lungs, enter the bloodstream and invade the heart Several studies have tinied particulate pollution to deaths of pi with heart and lung condiions • The seint of a anis apsyomacey 50 nicr http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/medical/story/1622756p-1698856c.html (5of 8) [3/4/2002 1:19:31 AM] NYC-WTC_000144600