World Trade Center environmental data report, 2001-2002

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

Summary of findings from this report:

• The scale of events on 9/11 overextended the abilities of health departments and even federal environmental managers • The damage to the environment was hard to assess initially and hard to communicate, and in the future hazards needed to be better assessed and conummicated; in the effort to make haste with waste cleanup, endangered workers and the public • 12 “Lessons Learned,” including: Call a hazard a hazard; respiratory protection and other worker protection has to be insisted on from day one; be open in communication with the public, even when there is scientific uncertainty; pay attention to health registries and public concerns, as well as air monitors and sampling; better training and preparedness; improve emergency protocols anticipating toxic pollutants that need monitoring.

Introduction

rom the time two hijacked passenger jets crashed into the towers of the World Trade Center, gouging them setting them afire, and another jet crashed into the Pentagon, triggering the closings of airports nationwide and deployment of emergency personnel in the wake of the terrorist attack, the first concern was saving lives and finding clues to the nature of the terrorist attack.

However, it wasn’t long before environmental and public health concerns rose to the fore. In fact, September 11 will go down in history not only as the first major act of terrorism on our shores but also as the country’s worst environmental health disaster.

The terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were attacks on two of the largest office buildings. But the lessons learned there apply to any facility that might be the target of a future terrorist attack—^airports, hospitals, bridges, tunnels, military bases, amusement parks, electric power plants, theaters, sports arenas, embassies and myriad other locations that have been identified. Close on the heels of the terror attacks, the anthrax scares that followed made us all aware of the need for an early warning system of disease tracking and a well-prepared, effective public health infrastructure that can respond quickly and effectively to any outbreaks in ways that individual doctors and hospitals cannot on their own. Photo: Paul Olivier

By anyone’s reckoning, the World Trade Center disaster moved health experts into uncharted territory.

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