World Trade Center environmental data report, 2001-2002

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

were unsuccessful in getting environmental monitoring data from government agencies. “They even declined our Freedom of Information Act request,” Kupferman told MSNBC.

Some environmental experts expressed concern that other substances besides asbestos were of greater concern shortly after the attacks. Asbestosis, the scarring of the lung from exposure to asbestos fibers, according to biologist Peter deFur, who teaches at the Center for Environmental Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, takes prolonged exposure to asbestos. ।

“The larger {problems are heavy metals and organic compounds,” deFur told MSNBC on Sept. 26, two weeks after the catastrophic attacks. Mercury, lead, copper, nickel, cadium, chromiiun, dioxin and polychlorinated biphenyls [PCBs] could all be present in the air because of the materials found in everyday office equipment, from copiers and printers to computers and electrical equipment. (3)

Several orga lizations began doing their own independent tests, unsatisfied with government reports and an inability to get monitoring data from government agencies. Kupferman took samples of dust and debris and foimd not just asbestos at levels (3 percent) similar to those found by EPA—4.5 percent, or 4.5 times the safe level—but also high levels (15 percent) of fiberglass, the substance used to replace it, and other types of mineral fiber (65 percent), MSNBC reported.

Although fibjrglass is not as dangerous as asbestos, pulmonologist Neil Schachter, medical director of respiratory care at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, told MSNBC, “We do not as yet know what the health consequences of breathing fiberglass fibers are.” It is known that direct contact with fiberglass fibers can irritate the skin, nose and throat, however, and according to the American Lung Association, “There is a possibility that these fibers cause permanent damage to the lungs or airways, or increase the likelihood of developing lung cancer.”

Newsweek algo reported on a new study by independent researchers who suggested that more asbestos was released than EPA tests were revealing, in a finer-particle, more hazardous form. In a Newsweek web exclusive October 5, 2001, David France described the study by the Virginia firm HP environmental and its findings that the force of the building collapse shattered asbestos into fibers too small to be picked up by standard EPA testing methods. “This stuff was just crushed, just pulverized,” lead author Hugh Granger told the magazine. “As it turns out, when we now measure and look for these very small fibers in the air and buildings, we find them, and we find them in Uniquely elevated concentrations.” (4)

By October 5^’’, tens of thousands of workers had returned to offices on Wall Street and the Financial District, while some 12,000 of the 20,000 displaced I residents were now back in their homes. Juan Gonzalez also reported a story on the wide array of toxic chemicals in the dust — in an Oct 26,2001, fro it-page column, with a tabloid cover that screamed “A Toxic Nightmare at a Disaster Site " His story detailed the EPA tests' findings of notable quantities of hazardous benzene, as well as dioxin levels discharged from a sewer pipe into the Hudson River that were more than fix e times higher than any previously recorded in New York Harbor. (5)

75

NYC-WTC_000144993