Student essay on 9/11 photography, Oct 2001

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

Commemorative edition b>' the students of Stuyvesant High School

An for Air Quality I couldn't think anything, I Laura Krug was so upset. I saw red. My With additional reporting by Abigail Deutsch friends couldn't calm me down, I wasn't crying like Oct. 24—Even if you’ve suffered from headaches, might have been suspended in the air. She also most, I was enraged. The bloody noses or watery eyes, you have little to cites the street cleanings performed by the anger came from the help­ worry about, maintained Board of Education, city Occupational Safety and Health Administration as lessness—I was so close, but I and private officials last week in spite of concerns well as the Environmental Protection Agency as that air quality is less than perfect. instrumental in the cleanup effort. couldn't do ANYTHING. And “The tests so far have really scientifically Still, students report that they are suffering no matter how strong 1 , proven that everything is all right,” said Howard from symptoms that they fear may be caused by the thought I was...l still found Bader of H.A. Bader Consultants, Inc., a firm of air quality inside the building. myself running away from environmental consulting engineers, “It’s good “A lot of my friends have been getting sick,” where I had close friends and data. There really was minimal contamination of said freshman Amar Doshi. "We’ve been taking family. the school.” The Parents’ Association enlisted polls ... teachers have been curious and they ask —Meg Kuczynski, junior Bader Associates to review the test results compiled their classes about it and a lot of students raise their by ATC Associates, Inc., the air testing company hands.” It all seemed to be a blur; the hired by the Board of Education. However, “Schools in general are lacking when According to both Bader and Nancy Orr, man- it comes to really good air quality,” said Bader. “I only vivid images I remember ager of safety and industrial hygiene at Beckton- think right now everybody is really focusing on it. is when I was on the marble Dickinson, a company that manufactures medical Something that might not be an object of concern staircase. I saw the cloud of equipment, the testing done by ATC was thorough normally suddenly is.” smoke and dust rush the and the instruments used in the testing were It is not just the air quality directly inside the school. You could not see out appropriate and sensitive enough to detect any school that is wording the parents of Stuyvesant the windows. All the teach­ substances in the air, most particularly asbestos, students, according to Parents’ Association ers I Interacted with were that might be harmful to the health of the school President Marilena Christodoulou. The barges calm and tried to console the community. directly north of school, into which loads of debris students as best as they Orr expressed confidence in the accuracy of from the disaster site are being transferred before the test results gathered by ATC, which she referred being hauled to Staten Island, have also become a could.... I feel homesick. I to as a “quality firm.” source of concern because of the dust that the think it makes all of us appre­ “ATC would have calibrated the pumps, proce- activity is disseminating into the air. During the ciate our school much more dures would have been followed, and results would October 16 PA meeting, which Christodoulou esti- than we did. have been read by an accredited lab,” she said. mated was attended by about 1,000 parents, many —Jukay Hsu, senior The air quality testing has been rigorous, voiced a desire to see the barge removed. according to Bader and Orr. In fact, Bader said that “The motion was passed by a large percentage I yelled to my class "the Twin when the Board of Education declared Stuyvesant of the parent body to work with the community to Towers just blew up. There's ready for reoccupancy, he was not immediately sat- attempt to have the barge moved to another loca- a big hole in It." Then every­ isfied. Because the initial testing had been con- tion,” said Christodoulou in a later interview. ducted without the school’s ventilation system on. The high incidence of reported health prob­ one went to the windows and it was only after a procedure called “Aggressive Air lems also sent worry rippling through the audience. people were like, "cool" and Testing”—which involves agitating any settled dust “One parent mentioned that her child had bro­ stuff.... I felt really guilty in order to inspect it more closely for asbestos and ken out into hives,” said Christodoulou, “and then after because I shouldn't be other contaminants—had been done that he felt somebody asked for a show of hands of whose kids so intrigued by this tragedy. thoroughly confident that classes should resume at had displayed any symptoms. I would say that 20% The shock died down and I Stuy. of the audience raised their hands.” got the picture later on...and Bader said that 53 air samples taken from the Christodoulou said that the PA had requested it wasn't pretty. school were found to be “perfectly clean,” and Orr that eight more air testing locations be set up — Lindsay Kim, sophomore added that the danger threshold for asbestos is 0.1 around the school, to supplement the single one fibers per cubic centimeter, while the air samples that had originally been established. for the school were found to contain 0.0046 fibers “I’m very concerned that we continue to mon­ It was a scary experience. The per cubic centimeter. itor [the air quality],” said Donovan Moore, a scariest part was when we “If you don’t even reach 50 percent of the Stuyvesant parent and treasurer of the PA. “As long were being evacuated and we threshold danger level,” said Orr, “there’s no real as we continue to monitor, we shouldn’t get too heard a crash. Everyone went danger." concerned over whether it’s healthy.” running in all directions and In addition to asbestos, the air in the school Regarding the health issues reported by Doshi there was total panic. I have has also been scrutinized for substances such as and others, Bader suggested that many syinptoms never felt so scared in my fiberglass, silica, lead and other particulate matter, that members of the school community are experi- life. Fiberglass is found mostly in insulation and sound encing may be psychosomatic or induced by the systems, as well as ceiling tiles, said Bader. stress of returning to the building for the first time —Ernest Baskin, sophomore since the September 11 tragedy. Fiberglass can be “very itchy and it’s a respiratory ' irritant,” but its levels at Stuy, as well as those for “The foul odor comes from the barge area, and We sat there and I was talk­ silica, are “way below levels of concern." He added I can only speculate that the odor leads to ing to my friend who was that no lead has been detected in the air at all, and headaches, teary eyes,” said Deputy Press Secretary talking about the logistics of that since lead paint and other products containing for the United Federation of Teachers Ron Davis. “It the whole thing and what he lead have been illegal since 1961—well before the appears that the Board of Education officials are would have done with the World Trade Center complex was built—none is taldng all the proper precautions they can take. The Pentagon instead. expected to be found. Also, although levels of cer­ only other thing would be to somehow encase the — Hamilton Davis, sopho­ tain potentially hazardous materials, such as diox­ barge area so that particles don’t become airborne ins and PCB’s, have been found to be elevated at and drift toward Stuy. But that’s a judgment call for more the actual World Trade Center disaster site, the lev­ city officials.” els of those substances in the school building are Moore added that, although there is no data to normal. warrant it, “Sometimes the most dangerous thing Orr also noted that the rains since the disaster in the air is hysteria. And [hysteria] has been hap­ have brought down many of the particulates that pening at Stuy.”

8 The Spectator • Fall 2001

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