HVAC cleanup proposal for residential units, Feb 2003

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document NJ.com - NewsFlash wysiwyg://89/http://www.nj.com/new...irQualit&&news&newsflash-newjersey

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r are ace News » Z`ou ons » Res A > NewsFlash Room » WebFlash » - Cores » South Jersey » elbowPanes N ws NewsFlash Home] irc JJII h Jersey/Metro News » Newspapers » Weather » Obituaries ) Win tickets to see and nner a esor Jersey/Metro News » Photos SEND THIS PAGE EPA, city to offer apartment cleaning PRINT THIS PAGF Look for 0 services downtown .+ i ~ersse » Talk Politics By MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN » riore Fr.urns The Associated Press Lop On to ChatXtra! 5/8/02 9:26 AM NEW YORK (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency and city Department of Environmental Protection will clean the apartments of Lower Manhattan residents worried about lingering debris from the World Trade Center collapse, an EPA spokeswoman said Wednesday. "This is really to assuage some remaining concerns from residents in lower Manhattan who continue to have concerns over air in their apartments," spokeswoman Mary Mears said. Environmental groups and downtown residents have for months n Advertis expressed concerns that the residents could be inhaling asbestos fibers in the dust from the twin towers. City and federal health and environmental agencies cleaned dust from streets and public spaces >> Click here for after Sept. 11 but have insisted that building interiors remained the Johnson Universit responsibility of landlords and residents. Events

New York's health department has recommended that most residents clean their own apartments with wet rags, mops and high-efficiency vacuum cleaners. City and federal agencies have moved toward more public involvement in recent months, however. The EPA and city environmental department recently announced that the Federal Emergency Management Agency will pay for abatement specialists in body suits and respirators to scour caked debris from the exteriors of downtown buildings. In coming weeks, residents concerned about the health effects of dust from the twin towers will be able to call a public hotline and request testing and professional cleaning, Mears said. The hotline has not been set up yet. City and federal testing have detected asbestos fibers at levels requiring professional cleaning in between 6 and 35 percent of samples of the trade-center dust. The carcinogenic material was used as fireproofing in at least 37 floors of the south tower. No limit has been set for program funding, to be provided by FEMA, and there is no indication of how many residents might take advantage of it, Mears said. "We don't have a cap on this," she said.

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