WTC document preservation notice, NYC Law Department

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document Danger Found in Tiade Center Air hilp://wwwJatimes,coni/iiews/nationworld/na...taiy?coll=la%2Dheadlines%2I>nation%2IJmanual

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RESPONSE TO TERROR Danger Found in Trade Center Air ■ Science: Rfisearehersdiscoverextremdy high levels of pollntion.'Situations like this just drat exisf in nrost of die world, project leader says. By OWrVPOLAKOVIC.TttlES STAFF WRITER

Smoke and dust from the destroyed World Trade Center buildings exposed residents of lower For Ud.. to Air is Gokton -and Shnvaftd&tNoa Manhattan to weeks of some of the highest levels of FBI Issues Utgom Attack Aten air pollution ever studied, a team of California Naw Year's tent the Same in scientists reported Monday. New Voilfs Chinatown ^ngor Feund tn Trade Comer

Carefully analyzed samples of air collected about a mile from the World Trade Center site in the weeks more> after the attacks show extraordinarily elevated levels I oftiny particles laced with soot and metals, tihe amsciWEtoth* researchers said. Fires smoldering in the rubble Ui Angelas TtnW

turned glass, concrete and computer equipment into an aerosol fallout that was far more intense and persistent than expected, they added. "No one has ever reported a situation like the one we see in die World Trade Centra* samples," said Tom Cahill, an atmospheric physicist at UC J Davis and the leader of the project. "In New York City and in most of the world, situations like this just dont exist" Cahill and his colleagues report J finding almost no asbestos and very little lead in the air—two pieces of good news for worried New Yorkers. They also found that die pollution II levels had dropped sharply by late October. But those reassurances for Il many in the city may be outweighed by the intensity of the pollution die researchers did find: weeks of very high levels of sulfur and sulfuric acid, g titanium, nickel and minute particles of silicon from pulverized glass and ■ concrete.

For many of the pollutants, die exact health effects are unknown. But recent studies have shown that tiny particles can penetrate lungs and be absorbed into the bloodstream. Exposure to particles has been linked to elevated rates of cancer, heart attacks and asthma. The condition of New York's air in the aftermath of the trade center disaster has been die subject of heated political debate for months. The federal Environmental Protection Agency has said their studies showed air in Manhattan was safe. But many New York residents and politicians and the EPA's own ombudsman have suggested the agency has i operly J—'downplayed health concerns. I " Independent Study Widens Debate The new research represents the first publicly available assessment from

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