Q&A and FAQ regarding WTC response, Oct 2001

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

Q. How do we know that what was found on the pile isn’t in my apartment?

A. The dust in your apartment is similar to the dust found around the site of the World Trade Center. As EPA has stated, this dust has been found to contain asbestos, and it should be either professionally cleaned up or handled very carefully, depending on the volume of the dust in your apartment. When the buildings collapsed, they projected an enormous amount of dust and debris into the lower Manhattan area. It is likely that some dust entered most apartments within the proximity of the WTC site.

Q. How much will it cost to clean my apartment?

A. There is still uncertainty about the cost per apartment for sampling, cleaning and post­ cleaning testing. (THIS ANSWER SEEMS INCOMPLETE - CAN FEMA HELP PAY FOR SOME CLEANUPS?HEPA VACS? Can we say that “FEMA and other relief agencies have been providing assistance in acquiring equipment if you wish to clean your own apartment and in paying some re-location costs or cleanup costs (??) if you chose professional cleaning”?)

Q. Why are you cleaning only one building when Sen. Clinton/Rep. Nadler asked you to clean 10,000 apartments?

A. EPA’s and NYC’s task forces are exploring if additional cleaning recommendations need to be provided to occupied buildings and if additional testing or cleaning may be needed in some apartments. The information we gather from cleaning an unoccupied building, along with information from a NYC DOH and ATSDR indoor air study and more than 100,000 samples taken by private contractors inside buildings in lower Manhattan, will be used to determine what followup actions may be needed in some apartments.

Category; current risks — what we know so far..

Q. Did EPA give bad guidance on indoor air?

A. EPA gave good guidance on air quality based sampling data. We acknowledged some risk, especially to workers on the pile who were directly exposed to smoke and were working in the dust. For area residents and workers we said that there ddid not appear to be a long term risk based on the levels of pollutants we were finding. This has been bom out by not only our sampling - more than 15,000 samples so far - but also exptensive sampling from the NYCDEP, OSHA, and others.

Q. How can I know what risk I or my family faces?

A. We’re evaluating what information we have. Given the tens of thousands of samples that have been taken by EPA and others, EPA does not anticipate any increased risk from exposure to WTC material for residents and office workers from the ambient air. We do know that die dust contains some asbestos, and we have removed the vast majority of dust from the outside -

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