Letter on mercury contamination spread by cleaning activities, Apr 1996

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document *, One University Dopartatat of Euvisonraontal Health icology B Wing, Room School of Public Health Reneselaer N.Y. 12144, U.S.A. A jotas venture with the Phone: (518) 525-2660 seafianion won tibory Mejieel College Fax: (518) 525.2665 UNIVERSITY AT ALBANY STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK Fabruary 8, 2002 To the Parents of Children in PS 69: Iwao my pleasure to adres the porants and teachers at PS 89 last Tussday right whare | could exlan why, my opinion, it is not safe to re-cccupy the bullding at this time. This letter is to put in writing these reasons, Sd ‘aloo to tal you more about whe lor in 1860 1 came to Albany as the Director of the Wadsworth Laboratories of the New York State Department of Health. The major event which brought me to Albany was related to Love Canal, which was the firat time in our history when peopie became aware of the hazards of chemical wastes In our communities, and event with many commonalities to the WTC attack. | became the Dean of the School of Public Health at the University at Albany in 1985. When I resigned as Dean in 1998, | became the Director of the Institute for Health and the Environment, a research and teaching institute directed at protecting health. | have conekierable expertise on tesues related to children's environmental health, as evidenced by the fact that i have been the organizer of two meetings on this subject in Asia, sponsored by the US National Institutes of Health and the World Health Children ere much more vulnerable than adults to the effects of environmental contaminanis, but most of the standards that have been set by EPA and other federal and state egencies are baeed on effects (often occupational) on adult white males. Therefore, in order to protect children it is essential that one add safety factors over what Is proposed for adults. Furthermore, It is not appropriate to be concemed only with immediate, acute health effects, but also to protect children from cancer and other chronic diseases which may appeer yeara after the exposure to toxins. in my judgment no one has demonstrated that PS &9 is sefe for at present, and Indeed the evidence presented is clear that it is not safe. The reasons for this conclusion are as Air-bome particulates are dangerous to everyone. They can triggers asthma attacks In vulnerable individuals, end may even cause asthma and other respiratory diseases. While the EPA standard of an &-hour work day for adults ia 65 ng/m3, EPA has sat a level of particulates in air of 40 ng/m3 for adults with respiratory or cardiac disease. This value |s also appiled to children. The level of particulates measured In PS 89 was greater than 40 ngfm3 on & of 11 daya tested, and on 3 days even the average sample was greater than this value, while on a fourth day the average was 38.9 ng/m3. On days when the outsider particulate tevais were high, the insider tavaia were high. Therefore, the present fiitering system {s not preventing particulates from getting into the building. There is, et present, no convincing evidence that the technique used for these measurements Is invalid. On the basis of these readings, alone, the echoo! should not be re-opened. There Is certainly adequate évidence for asthma, coughs and other kinds of breathing disarders in persons exposed at other sites near the WTC, and children should not be in the schoo! bullding until the particulate levels are definitively documented ta be below 40 ng/ms at ail times. Visit oor website st www_.albany.edu/ihe ce OEVd GV USLNERVO ss9zszsers TT:€T 2882/12/26 NYC-WTC_000144610