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UC Davis News & Information :: Trade Center Air Heid Unprecedented Amounts... Page 3 of 4

fuel-oil combustion), copper and zinc. Mercury was seen occasionally In fine particles but at low concentraUc those metals are widely used in building construction, wiring and plumbing. Some are common in computers

The metal content of the coarse particles is still being analyzed.

Asbestos and glass

Although some asbestos was used in the buildings for fireproofing and In floor tiles, and the DELTA group cf carefully using the election microscope, they found very few asbestos fibers, even in the very fine particles.

Some particles that appeared to be glass were seen, but they were not in the form of long shards, which can asbestos fibers.

Clean-up recommendations

/Mi evidence indicates that ambient air in New York City now is little influenced by the World Trade Center cc especially since the fires are out and the debris pile has cooled.

However, the presence of large amounts of very fine particles as late as October means that indoor dean uf done carefully, Cahill said. Very fine particles will have penetrated crevices and fabrics in a way normal dust they are easily re-suspended, which re-exposes the room's occupants to them.

Cahill strongly supports the recommendations made by the New York Department of Health regarding washi and said;

- Don't use vacuum deaneis or brooms because they re -suspend particles. Do use wet rags, mops and wet cleaners.

- Wipe all surfaces, including window blinds, picture tops and door frames, with wet rags.

- Drapes and curtains should be washed or dry-cleaned. Furniture fabrics should be steam-deaned. Carpet wet-cleaned.

- Use high efficiency electroststio or HEPA air filters in furnaces and air conditioners.

- Keep humidity reasonably high indoors, to keep very fine particles from floating around.

UC Davis DELTA Group

The UC Davis DELTA Group is one of the world's leading research groups in analyzing the size, composittor movement of airborne particles DELTA Group sdentists analyzing the trade center samples induded Cahill; professor James Shackelford, Ph.D., who led the scanning electron microscopy; chemistry professor Peter f who led the mass spectroscopy; assistant research engineer Steve Cliff, Ph.D., who is project manager for t program, and laboratory and field manager Michael Jimenez-Cruz, toxicologist.

Key cdlaborators from other institutions were Kevin Perry, Ph.D., a former Cahill postdoctoral collaborator a assistant professor of meteorology at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City; Graham Bench, Ph.D., a project the Center for Accelerator Mass Spectroscopy, U.S. Department rtf Energ/s Lawrence Livermore National L his team of scientists; and Jodye Selco, Ph.D., a visiting professor at UC Davis and a professor of chemistry University of Redlands, Redlands, California.

The DELTA Group's many previous research projects indude studies of the smoke from the Kuwaiti oil fires international ACE studies (for Aerosol Characterization Experiment), which are deserted to shed light on the aerosols In global weather, water pdlution and human disease. The most recent, ACE-Asia, operated under Science Foundation ftjnding witli 21 aerosol-sampling sites from Asia to western North America from March 2001.

DELTA Group currently is continuing analyses of the 2001 ACE samples, as well as stucfies of Alaskan air qi nature of diesel-vehicle exhaust, the imparts of air pollution on human health in California's great Central Va environmental health of the Lake Tahoe Basin.

For more inf<xmation, visit the DELTA Web site at http://delta.ucdavis.edu.

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