World Trade Center environmental data report, 2001-2002

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

asbestos, glass, fiberglass, and other components of the office buildings do when incinerated, it is impossible to fully test for toxic exposures.” (7)

A study in the Mortality and Morbidity Report a year later would summarize the results of a telephone survey conducted among Manhattan residents 5-9 weeks following the attacks showing that among the 13% of adult respondents with asthma, 27% reported experiencing more severe asthma symptoms after September 11.

"People feel like they are not getting a clear picture from the authorities." Concerns over potential health risks surrounding exposure to World Trade Center smoke and dust didn’t really erupt until weeks after the disaster, some time after EPA and Mayor Giuliani had made their pronouncements of safety. Sometime in October 2001, community newspapers began reporting local disgruntlement and confusion, and even some fierce objections to the government’s handling:

“Many of the people closest to the World Trade Center relief efforts are not satisfied with how government agencies are handling the cleanup. There appear to be a lot of gaps. In particular, residents, workers and advocates have expressed concern about the lack of coordination, and the lack of information, on environmental health issues at Ground Zero and the neighborhoods around it,” wrote Michael Burger, the author of an article in Gotham Gazette - October 22, 2001. (8)

"People feel like they are not getting a clear picture from the authorities," Foster Maer, a downtown resident and member of the Warren-Murray Street Task Force told the Gazette. "To the extent that information is being released people are not getting it. And there is probably a lot of information not even being released."

While neighborhoods were expressing concerns, discussions were ongoing in the medical community. Mt. Sinai Hospital’s Department of Community and Preventive Medicine jumped into the fray, educating its patients and the public on the medical implications of the disaster. Robin Solomon and Margaret Pastuszko said they’d received many calls, especially from the media, about air pollution.

“We have also received 200 - 300 inquiries about the possibility of a bio-terrorist attack and about the advisability of stockpiling antibiotics or vaccines to counteract such an attack,” they reported. “Our message here has been to reassure people that the City of New York is keenly aware of the possibility of bioterrorism and that they and investigators from the Centers for Disease Control are monitoring the situation extremely closely. To date, there is no evidence of an attack.”

“No one was sick in the beginning of the Gulf War, but as time went on they developed illnesses. I can only imagine that the same thing could happen here.” Physicians also started seeing an increased number of patients with rfespiratory ailments - coughing, wheezing, sore throats, bronchitis, new cases of asthma or its exacerbation, reported

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