World Trade Center environmental data report, 2001-2002

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

Survivors of the environmental health ‘fallout’ in New York argue that the agencies’ claims that the pollution episodes in New York won’t produce short or long term effects have already been proven wrong.

“Much of the concern has died down,” says Jenna Orkin, on the steering committee of the 9/11 Environmental Action Group in New York, “but you still hear lots of cases—children coming down with new onset asthma, restrictive airway diseases or weird ailments like a kid who was exposed to dust that got a spinal illness. Whether there will be more cancers is everyone’s worry, but I’d like to be wrong.”

So far, The New York Times reported in August 2003, researchers haven’t turned up cases of “significant harm” to those who breathed the air aroimd ground zero, even though it contained increased levels of benzene, lead, mercury, PCB's, asbestos and fiberglass. The newspaper cites the one preliminary study which found a slight but significant increase in the percentage of smaller than usual infants bom to pregnant women who were at or near the site around the time of the attack.

But studies are far from over—about 70 health studies are now underway of workers and residents - and even dogs - touched by the environment at Groimd Zero.

The city recently launched its health registry to determine if such ailments continue to persist—or if other long-term ailments have cropped up. This is a source of anger in the Ground Zero neighborhoods because residents argue that a registry started two years after the fact won’t be accurate. There is some early data, however. Early on, in October 2001, the NYC Department of Health and CDC conducted a door to door survey of residents of Battery Park City and two other areas near the attack site and found that almost 40 percent of those sampled showed post- traumatic symptoms, while 50 percent of those sampled were still experiencing symptoms to be expected from smoke inhalation and from the still burning fires. (23)

Meanwhile, however, a recent poll of downtown residents shows that health ailments related to September 11* remain. According to Bliun and Weprin, 30 percent of residents responding who lived Downtown before 9/11 said someone in their household suffers from coughing, respiratory problems, or some other ailment which they believed to have been caused by the World Trade Center debris. As for new residents, 25 percent answered yes to this question.

The health toll for workers is, of course, much worse. In New York City, the terrorist attacks have triggered a flood of legal claims by workers against the city, according to a report released by City Comptroller Bill Thompson in June 2003. Firefighter claims against the city increased more than 20-fold last year due to the World Trade Center disaster.

Where only 171 members of the uniformed services sued the city in the prioryear, in the fiscal year 2002, the number of lawsuits ballooned to 1,194. By far, most of the lawsuits were filed by firefighters, many of whom sought compensation from the city for illnesses suffered after work at the World Trade Center site. “Because of the time that was spent over at Ground Zero and the work that was done, there are a number of people that are saying they are suffering, whether it's respiratory problems or other problems, as an after-effect of the work that was done there and what they felt was inadequate equipment that didn't protect them fully,” said Thompson. (24)

Dr. Kerry Kelly, chief medical officer of the New York City Fire Department testified before the Senate Environment and Public Works committee that firefighters were severely disabled by their service at Ground Zero. Although 90 percent of the force were afflicted by cough within the first

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