DEP referral form for WTC site with follow-up status, undated

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

‘ Expert Says Asbestos Slightly Raised Risks for Disease Among Residents of Lower Manh.. Page 2 of 3

a.pux VXXIVIILO VI vxxxwo VXXV XXOXV VX V wx gvtuxxx^ OXVXV WUO WXJ» Premium Account Site Help small." Siii NEWSPAPER HomfiLDgliyery He also said, after examining test results and cleanup records in some Customer Sen/ice schools in Lower Manhattan, including Stuyvesant High School and Public School 150, that students and parents in those schools should as BII have little concern about long-term health effects. Text Version In general, he said, people who regularly walked by the disaster site on M fiSillS their way to or from work in the days and weeks afterward were msi exposed to lower asbestos levels, which should not worry them. WB "It's important to keep this risk in perspective," he said. "It's not a zero increase in risk, but it's not a magnitude of risk that I think people ought AOVERTI to be terrorized by or fearful of on a day-to-day basis." Join Ameritradi Asbestos, a fibrous mineral that was used for decades in the insulation get a special o1 of buildings, including parts of the twin towers, was not the only material that people were exposed to after the Sept. 11 attack. The billowing dust cloud contained pulverized concrete, fiberglass and FincLMQre_LQW Experience Ort other materials. Acrid smoke from the fires that burned for more than three months at the site irritated the lungs and sinuses of thousands. SaleJoEurope But it is asbestos, perhaps because of the broader public awareness of $199iOffeLenc its risks and the fear its name evokes, that has dominated the debate about the medical and environmental consequences of the attack. Scientists have weighed in on the risks presented by short asbestos fibers and long ones. Some residents and workers have said that they believed there were cover-up conspiracies, perpetrated by the city, the federal government or building owners, to minimize cleanup costs and liabilities.

Dr. Levin's presentation concluded that for most people, the added risks were slight, not because asbestos is less deadly than believed, but because most people did not get the level of exposure that, statistically, has produced disease. One-time exposure that results in cancer many years later is extremely rare, he said, and the scarring of the lungs that characterizes diseases like asbestosis generally requires years of exposure.

The catastrophic collapse of the towers smashed much of the asbestos in the buildings into tiny fibers, which have been shown in animal tests to be generally less dangerous than longer fibers. (Short fibers, however, have been linked in some studies to a relatively rare cancer called mesothelioma that affects about one in a million people in the general population, Dr. Levin said.)

But the risks from asbestos exposure were also compounded for many people, including rescue and cleanup workers, who did not wear respirators sufficient to protect their lungs at ground zero and nearby. Manv dav laborers, includine laree numbers of immierants who sooke

http://www.nytimes.eom/2002/04/26/nyregion/26ASBE.html 4/26/02

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