New York Times article on health concerns near Trade Center,

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

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Uneven TYmtment Near TradeCenter, / ■

Stark Disparities 1 Emerge in Geanups Lax Government Leadership Leaves Some Residences THE WALL STRE With Asbestos Concerns ' Companies Spend to Refurbish Stark Disparities Emerge in Sept. 11 Cleanups Continued From First Page By Motoko Rich whether the combination of substances !_ % And Susan Wahren produced by the unprecedented calamity Neighborhood Watch will cause illnesses in the future. *We The community around the former World Trade Center site features NEW YORK-In the eight months that Just don't know, but if you don't get a mix of businesses, residences and schools. Steve Stewart and his 4,000 colleagues at -1 [buildings] cleaned, obviously there will American Express Co, were exiled from be a higher probability’’ of long-term their offices after Sept U, a lot was go­ risk, says Paul J. Uoy, associate director ing on in the company’s headquarters of the Environmental and Occupational across the street from the World Trade Health Sciences Institute, which is sup­ Center site. Cleaners vacuumed thick lay­ ported by the University of Medicine and L-'Ak » ers of dust and debris that bad blown into Dentistry of New Jersey and Rutgers Uni­ the 51-story tower through shattered win­ versity. He Is working on a study of resi­ dows. Specialists tested for 120 contami­ dents near Ground Zero. nants, including asbestos, lead and mer­ cury. Hr. Stewart ! Free-for-AU returned in June to 1 a pristine office, The main blame for the helter-skelter _with a oew.dialr.. indoor cleanup of downtown Manhat- - computer and gray- --------tan-a triangular area at-the Island's ' tv■ isirr YJr and-blue carpeting. American Express, the 32-year-old man­ ager says, -did what it needed to do to alleviate peo­ southern end where 200,000 people live and work-can be traced to the shuffling of responsibility among government agencies. In the days after Sept U, the Federal Emergency Management Agency assigned the EPA to monitor out­ door air, clear debris and dust and han­ I ! ple’s fears." dle hazardous waste removed from the A few blocks disaster site. New York Qty assumed con­ away, Sudhir Jain trol over indoor areas, including apart­ had a different ex­ Steoe Stewart t perience. The ments. But the city’s Department of Envi­ I freelance techmd- ronmental Protection delegated to land­ ogy consultant moved back to his apart­ lords and residents the job of actually ment five blocks south of Ground Zero ' cleaning up and testing. What followed So far, residents tn 3,160 apart* newsroom director for the Independent f only two weeks after Sept. 11. His living was a free-for-all. ments-a little more than 10% (rf those Association of Publishers’ Employees, t room was stiU covered by gray dust The City officials distributed sketchy eligible-bave asked for EPA help. Mr. says, “People have been reassured by the j owner of the 208-unit residential building _ guidelines but did little to enforce them. Jain is one of those, but be worries his - results of Uie testing on our own space so ' denied tenants’ requests to hire a clean­ The recommendations included, for ex­ building won’t get a thorough overall far, but they remain wary about eondi- i ing contractor, Mr. Jain says, so he hired ample, wiping down surfaces with a wet treatment "We should be getting a dons elsewhere in our building and hi 1 his own. Confused about what sort of test­ rag but didn’t specify how to tell if poten- proper asbestos cleanup like the corpo- neighboring buildings." Melissa Coley, a 4 ing would be appropriate, he didn’t do Ual hazards had been eliminated. al rale tenants are getting,* he says. spokeswoman for Brookfield Properties .t ’ any. 'We have been left to fend for our­ // J ^EPA officials in New York say they H In addition to American Express, com- Corp., owner of the Dow Jones building, i selves to protect our own health and I Widn’t take the initiative indoors because fl panics such as Merrill Lynch & Co., Bank says, “We have directly addressed the i safety," says Mr. Jain, 40. / -inelther FEMA nor New York City asked it II of New York Co., Royal Bank of Canada concerns of all of our tenants and con- i Nearly a year after the Sept 11 terror- ' ' Vto. Bonnie Bellow, an EPA spokeswoman II and Dow Jones & Co., publisher of this tinue to monitor the air quality tn our 1 1st attacks destroyed the’Twin Towers and to New York, says the regional office had II newspaper, say they have cleaned and buildings." unleashed a massive cloud of debris on K hands full for months focusing on the I tested extensively. The potentially dan- Tb protect against asbestos or other , . lower Manhattan, the continuing cleanup ^tdoor cleanup. “As the outdoor condi- gerous substance of greatest concern is toxins that might be lingering in fire -t - presents a stark case of haves and have- raons began to improve, and it became asbestos, a fibrous material used in fire downtown air, Brookfield, which also t nots. The biggest corporate tenants and Wear that there was confusion and con- I landlords have conducted pricey clean- Mrn about any residual dust that might iqrs, costing millions of dollars each. But ^maln in peqile's homes, we proceeded t until recently, government agencies at all .yith the development of a plan for clean­ The main blame for the helter-skelter indoor ( levels failed to mount a centralized cam-' ing up dust Indoors," Ms. Bellow says. paign of scrubbing and testing indoor . , k For its part, FEMA says it deferred to cleanup of downtown Manhattan can be traced L spaces. As a result, many residential bulld- fahe EPA. “We were waiting for them to ings, schools and small businesses have re- Hell us there was a problem with indoor to the shuffling of responsibility among f , cel^only spotty attention. - - . <r‘air quality," says Brad Gair, the senior "p- -Even without firm government guld- \\ r FEMA official ta the scene. Geoffrey government agencies. j- wnCBtmany large companies and land- 1\ •:Ryan, a spokesperson with the city’s ktords ‘were quick If • DEP, says Us agency “worked coopera- ,*to spend a lot of. I t lively from day one with EPA." The city retardant in the Trade Center'that can owns the tower housing RBC Capital Mar- 4 »money, upgrade ai- 1 1 advised landlords they had to dean build- <cause lung disease and cancer If there Is kets, says it installed filter systems to ‘ '^’^KiV'ttation systems. ' , , Ings according to a “strict protocol," Mr. 'exposure for a period cd years. Others block more than 95% of particles measur- c land bring in ex-’ 1 (■ Ryan says. “If there was a problem, wel 'include pulverized cement and glass, Ing one micron or larger. The same was l beats,* says Hugh toviewed IL" which can cause respiratory problems. done at many other large commercial L Kaufman, a policy Beginning last fall, the EPA came un­ and lead and mercury from Incinerated buildtags In the vietaity. Before Sept u, L Janalyst at the Envi- der escalating pressure from residents 'computers and lighting, which can cause the standard lor corporate offices was . knunental Pntec- , and local politicians who argued that as ■nervous-system damage. between 60% and 85%. * ■lon Agency’s head- , the country’s premier environmental Jpiarters in Wash- lb eliminate asbestos, big companies By contrast, at Stuyvesant High ! ^^n. But lacking agency, it ought to oversee all cleaning. Ihave stripped out carpets, cubicle walls. School, four blocks north of Ground Zero, , u official coordlna- In May, eight months after Sept U, the ceiling tiles and upholstered furniture. the New York City Department of Bduca- > nm—including EPA finally responded by offering to re- American Express says it threw out Uon upgraded classroom filters to block > tern his own. move any asbestos from 30.000 resi­ enough furniture and floor covering to fewer than 40% of such tiny particles. i SuOiiirJain >~Tn«ny dences in lower Manhattan. That work fill a football field piled five feet high. Students bad moved back into the large, _______ —J landlonte will begin tn September. RBC Coital Markets, a unit of Royal - academically elite public school In Octo- : I Gauners, _ eraners. Hr. Kaufman adds. “I give But to get a cleanup, tenants or own­ Bank of Canada, which occupies five ber, two months before the filters were j I Ibe private sector tremendous kudo^f 11 ers must ask the EPA to come in. That floors of a black tower on the eastern improved and while trucks were still ter- , I Rtye the public sector an F-mlm^’ means while one apartment may be edge of the Trade Center site, says it rytag dusty debris to barges in the Hud- , Hr. Jain’s landlord at SO Battery Place, cleaned, the nearby elevator shaft or unit even vacuumed hundreds of thousands of .son River Just 50 yards away. , V the DeMatteis Organization, says through next door may not, creating the possibil­ individual pieces of paper. -go here were these capitalists pro- j a spokesman that it told tenants to hire ity of recontamlnatlon. The agency will Wall Street Journal employees began tecttag their employees, and we have vul- t their own cleaners ami submit bills for pos­ < clean hallways and lobbies only if asked returning to the Dow Jones offices adja- nerable young kids who received less pro- j by a landlord. The EPA isn't offering to cent to the Trade Center site in late July. tecUon at school. I fiijd that outrageous," i sible reimbursementby the owner’s insur­ dean small businesses or schools. Tbm Lauticella, a Journal reporter and says Harilena Christodoulou, until re- ance company. Only a bandful-Hr. Jain isn’t among them-bave submitted such -Jj bills, the spokesman says. Those claims CWWBM-a

are still being sorted out Public-health experts say that, so far, they haven’t Identified any long-term se­ rious health risks from the disaster. But that view assumes effective outdoor and indoor cleanups of asbestos and other tox­ ins. And while health studies continue, the experts stress they don’t know yet Please Turn to Page AU, Column I

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