Law Department notice on WTC document preservation, Oct 2001

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

Recommendations This chapter summarizes observations based on work conducted to answer the objectives discussed in Chapters 2 through 6. These prior chapters contain recommendations that address specific issues related to those objectives. Recommendations to address observations not covered in the prior chapters are included in this chapter.

We recommend that the EPA Administrator:

7-1. Work with the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies to share information on likely targets and threats and collaboratively develop approaches to address these threats. Such approaches should include, at a minimum:

a. Identifying the pollutants expected to be emitted from such targets, b. Assessing the pathways of human exposure to those pollutants, c. Developing approaches to monitoring and assessing environmental contamination from those targets, and d. Establishing plans of action for reducing human exposure from these pollutants.

7-2. Define and clarify internal EPA organizational roles and responsibilities in responding to large-scale disasters. This should include designating teams of Agency experts - at both the National and Regional level - that can be mobilized to quickly provide needed technical support during a response. These areas may include specialized sampling techniques, exposure modeling and assessment, and risk assessment.

7-3. Develop and improve health-related benchmarks that can be used to assess health risk in emergencies. Specifically:

a. Continue agency work on Acute Exposure Guideline Levels, b. Develop sub-chronic exposure guidelines for pollutants determined to be a high priority as a result of terrorist attacks or other large-scale disasters, c. Develop health-related benchmarks for asbestos in air, d. Develop benchmarks for assessing potential exposure from contaminant levels in dust, e. Continue to develop and refine benchmarks for COPCs in indoor environments, f. Conduct research to determine the synergistic impact of exposure to multiple pollutants, and g. Develop expert panels that can be used to quickly develop health- related benchmarks in emergency situations.

69 Report No. 2003-P-00012

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