Q&A and FAQ regarding WTC response, Oct 2001

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

vacuuming streets and parks and washing buildings. Removing the dust from within your apartment and from your building will reduce any risk that may exist from the indoor apartment. For the short term, we know people have experienced irritation from the WTC dust material.

Q. What are the chemicals of concern?

A. The principal concern has been asbestos, but EPA has tested for many other chemicals that were associated with the fires and with the materials we know to have been in the WTC buildings. We did not find detectable levels of many of these chemicals and for still more any levels we found were below benchmarks set by our risk assessors and public health experts. A few compounds, such as asbestos and fibrous glass along with some possible others, may still be of concern in some indoor areas.

Q. Am 1 at risk from mercury poisoning? A. No.

Q. Am I at risk from lead poisoning? A. No.

Q. Are levels found at school dangerous to my children?

A. According to samples taken by the Board of Education and by a private contractor, the air in downtown schools does not contain dangerous levels of pollutants. Some reported lead samples did exceed federal standards, but those levels might be related to levels commonly found in New York City. For more information, go to NYCDEP’s web site - which contains all the school sampling results. You can also call the NYC Hotline.

Q. Am I at risk for asbestos disease (or sickness from glass fibers)?

A. In the long term - we do not anticipate any increased risk from exposure to WTC material for residents and office workers from the ambient air. Removing the dust from within your apartment and from your building will reduce any risk that may exist from the indoor apartment. We have continuously informed workers at the WTC site to wear respiratory protection to reduce their risks of exposure to contaminants from the site. In the short term - individuals have experienced irritation and a worsening of existing respiratory conditions due to the WTC dust.

Q. Critics like Cate Jenkins say the 1% standard isn’t safe enough, will critics’ conunents change the standard to something else?

A. The 1% is a regulatory standard for determining if a substance is asbestos containing material. We cleaned everything up regardless of the % of asbestos in the dust. We also advised the public to just assume that the dust contained asbestos. We only used the 1% to characterize the dust and get a sense of its content.

Category — long term health effects

Q. Will you track health effects?

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