VOC sampling locations table for Ground Zero area, Jan 2002

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

Executive Summary In the days following the September 11,2001, terrorist attack on New York City’s World Trade Center (WTC) towers, many federal agencies, including the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), were called upon to bring their technical and scientific expertise to the national emergency. EPA, other federal agencies, and New York City and New York State public health and environmental authorities initiated numerous air monitoring activities to better understand the ongoing impact of emissions fi-om that disaster. These efforts generated an immense amount of data. Many EPA offices and programs quickly became involved with these activities, providing scientific, engineering, public health, and management expertise to help cope with the after effects of the collapse of the WTC towers. EPA Region 2, which includes the New York City metropolitan area in New York and New Jersey, is the Agency’s lead office on these activities, including the important and complicated task of community outreach and communication. As part of these activities. Region 2 requested that EPA’s Office of Research and Development (ORD) conduct a human health evaluation of exposure to air pollutants resulting from the WTC disaster.

The evaluation in this report relies primarily on the analyses of ambient air samples from monitors located at the perimeter of the WTC Ground Zero and at various other sites in lower Manhattan and surrounding areas. It is an assessment of the inhalation exposure and potential human health risk incurred by the general population residing and working in the vicinity of the WTC. Numerous other efforts have been conducted or are ongoing that address other aspects of exposure and potential risk associated with the collapse of the WTC towers, including:

1) Ground Zero worker exposures: This report reviews some of the data collected by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) that address the exposures faced by fireman and rescue workers, but does not explicitly evaluate these exposures.

2) Indoor exposures: Similarly, this report reviews some of the data collected on indoor air and dust, particularly a recently completed study by the New York City of Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (NYCDOHMH) and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Control (ATSDR). It also provides an overview of the ongoing efforts by EPA Region 2 to clean apartments and evaluate the quality of indoor air and dust. Future reports by EPA Region 2 will detail these efforts and monitoring results.

3) Epidemiology studies: Chapter 7 of this report provides an overview of the types of studies that are ongoing which will evaluate health impacts experienced by workers and others known to be in the vicinity of WTC in the days and weeks following September 11,2001. These studies are being conducted and sponsored by the National Institute of Environmental Health Studies (NIEHS), and others.

The ambient air monitoring activities described in this report were undertaken by federal, state and local agencies which have made their analytical results available to EPA for analysis. Most of the monitors were placed following the disaster, with the intent of characterizing outdoor levels of WTC-generated air pollutants at locations surrounding the WTC site at

DRAFT-DO NOT QUOTE OR CITE 1 October 2002

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