Law Department notice on WTC document preservation, Oct 2001

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

Chapter 5 Air Quality-Related Communications Not Effective in Getting Public and Workers to Take Recommended Precautions A critical component in helping the public minimize exposure to potential health hazards resulting from a terrorist attack or other disasters involves communicating risk information to the public. Armed with such information, the public can take positive steps to mitigate potential exposures as well as other precautions to avoid unnecessary health risks. After the terrorist attack on WTC, government communications were criticized for not providing timely and accurate information to the public. Evidence gathered through studies and various governmental hearings indicates that the public and Ground Zero workers did not receive sufficient air quality information, wanted more information on the associated health risks, and did not consistently take precautions recommended by government communications to minimize their health risk. Because of these concerns, the OIG conducted a survey of New York City residents regarding government communications. These results will be reported separately.

NYCDOH Survey Found Residents Wanted More Air Quality Information and Did Not Use Recommended Cleaning Procedures From October 25 through November 1,2001, NYCDOH conducted a door-to- door survey of residents in Lower Manhattan’s Battery Park City, Southbridge Towers, and Independence Plaza. All of these neighborhoods were in close proximity to the WTC towers. A representative sample of apartments from each of these three areas was selected and a total of 414 interviews were conducted. The survey reached two conclusions related to air quality:

• Residents of Lower Manhattan were worried about their health and safety. There was a tremendous concern about the air quality and its potential effects on health. The high proportion of the population experiencing symptoms likely to be related to respiratory irritants contributed to this concern.

• The majority of households had not been cleaned according to recommendations, possibly increasing the exposure to respiratory irritants.

Specifically, in regard to air quality information, the report noted that:

The topics ofmost interest to this population related to air quality, its safety and its effect on the physical health of both adults and children (70% said they wanted more information about air quality). There is a

41 Report No. 2003-P-00012

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