WTC document preservation notice, NYC Law Department

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

A 1

Gerson Says EPA Findings Confirm Community Fears, page 3

Study Shortfalls

The EPA Itself acknowledges that Its study’s scientific application Is limited to the toxicity of “the fine fraction of WTC dust from a single exposure,” based on “current scientific understanding of the toxicity these contaminants pose to people.” It confirms that “ it cannot be stated with certainty what effects resulted when people were engulfed In the initial cloud of dust or were subsequently exposed to the elevated concentrations that were found.”

□ It uses an acceptable risk level of 1 in10,000 parts, breaking with the EPA’s own standard of 1 in 1 million. □ It assesses the theoretical risk to healthy adult subjects, ignoring the special conditions of the many seniors and children □ It ignores the potential domino health effect of exposure to many toxins at one time, some of which may make subjects hypersensitive to others □ It did not test air or dust immediately following 9/11, with samples collected days after the plume has subsided □ it collected samples at fixed locations, all but one outdoors, while residents are exposed to dust lingering in their environments since the disaster.

Medical Assessment

According to medical experts, assessing the health effects of the toxins requires physical examination and monitoring of patients over time. The study, instead, tested the arnount of toxins in air and dust samples, weighing it against standard levels of acceptable risk. Given the nature of the World Trade Center collapse, the sheer volume and number of toxins released into the air are unprecedented, and seriously strain the value of standard toxicity risk levels. In fact, dioxin levels were the highest ever recorded by the EPA.

“These are theoretical computations based on uncertain results based on grab samples of air and dust,” says Marc Wilkenfeld, M.D., board-certified occupational and environmental physician at Columbia University School of Medicine. “Medically speaking, the only way to assess the impact of the 9/11 toxins on people’s health Is to examine the patients themselves and set up a health monitoring system to track them over time.”

NYC-WTC_000144794