Law Department notice on WTC document preservation, Oct 2001

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

on the dust and debris that they removed. Moreover, most of these workers reported health symptoms that first appeared or worsened after September 11, 2001. These symptoms included coughing, sore throat, nasal congestion, chest tightness, headaches, fatigue, dizziness, and sleep disturbances. The results were based on examinations of 418 workers from January 15 through February 28, 2002.

Ground Zero Workers May Not Have Received Sufficient Information A widely publicized aspect of the WTC response was the lack of respirator use by rescue and construction crews. It was beyond the scope of this review to determine the extent that respirators were not used and why this occurred. However, we reviewed EPA’s efforts to provide respirators, reviewed accounts of respirator use in various articles and reports, and inquired about respirator use and availability during our interviews with EPA, other Federal agency. New York City, and non-govemment officials. Our limited work in this area indicated that respirators were generally available but were not worn for a number of reasons. A significant factor was the desire to save lives without regard for personal safety in the immediate aftermath of the disaster. Other reasons appeared to include the respirators’ interference with the ability of emergency workers to communicate, lack of training, lack of enforcement of safety measures at the site, and conflicting messages about the air quality at Ground Zero.

A detailed discussion on the use of respirators by rescue and construction crews at Ground Zero, including EPA activities to encourage respirator use as well as the health impacts of the lack of respirator use, are in Appendix L.

A January 2002 report*^ concluded that respirator use was compromised, in part, due to mixed messages that workers received about the importance of respiratory protection. For example, the report noted that air monitoring information was often within OSHA permissible limits or below the analytical method limit of detection. Thus, on one hand workers had information suggesting that the air quality was not bad, but a message to wear respirators on the other. This report also noted the poor example set by political figures, celebrities, and even supervisors who visited the site but did not wear respirators.

The experiences of the Laboratory Director of an environmental testing firm hired to conduct testing for one of the companies conducting the site clean-up was consistent with information presented in the report on respiratory usage at the WTC site. This individual, with many years experience in asbestos toxicology and applied environmental hygiene, told us that he interpreted EPA’s statement that the air was safe to breathe to apply to Ground Zero. The Laboratory Director

15 “Respiratory Protection at the World Trade Center: Lessons From the Other Disaster,” Bruce Lippy, CIH, CSP, January 15,2002.

43 Report No. 2003-P-00012

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