New York Times article on health concerns near Trade Center,

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

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Uneven TYeatment Near Trade Center, / ■

Stark Disparities / 1 Emerge in Cleanups Lax Goveriunent 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 Rica whether the combination of substances I__ ijf And Susan Warben produced by the unprecedented calamity Neighborhood Watch will cause illnesses In the future. “We The community around the former World Trade Center sKe 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. muHsm Steve Stewart and his 4.000 colleagues at 1 Ibuildings] cleaned, obviously there will American Express Co. were exiled from be a higher probability” of tong-term 11 WWl Abeir offices after .Sept. 11. a lot was go­ risk, says Paul J. Lloy, associate director ing on in the company’s headquarters - of the Environments and Occupations across the street from the World Trade HeSth Sciences Institute, which is sup­ Center site. Cleaners vacuumed thick lay­ ported by the University of Medicine and ers of dust and debris that bad blown into Dentistry of New Jersey and Rutgers US- the Sl-story tower through shattered win­ versity. He is working on a study of resi­ dows. Specialists tested for 120 contami­ nants, including asbestos, lead and mer- cury. Mr. Stewart t t f dents near Ground Zero. Free-for-AII -4 ” returned in June to The main blame to the helter-skelter a pristine office, indoor cleanup of downtown ManhS- with a new .chair, _ computer and gray- and-blue carpeting. American Express, , I —tan—a -triangular area nt-the island’s” southern end where 200,000 people live and work-can be traced to the shuffling ■ faSsf‘^2 1 the32-year-oldman- ager says, “did what it needed to of responsibility among government agencies, in the days after Sept U, the Feders Emergency Management I do to alleviate peo­ Agency assigned Ibe EPA to monitor out­ ple's fears.” door air, clear debris and dust and han­ A few blocks dle hazardous waste removed from the *-*-A*«« iudson^ away, Sudhir Jain disaster site. New York Qty assumed con­ Kittel^

bad a different ex­ Steve Stewart trol over indoor areas, including apart­ 1 perience. The ments. But the city’s Department of Envi­ freelance technol­ ronmental Protection delegated to land­ J 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 in 3,160 apart- newsroom director for the Independent I only two weeks after Sept. 11. His living was a free-for-all. ments-a little more than 10% of those Association of Publishers’ Employees, t room was still covered by gray dust. The aty officials distributed sketchy eligible-bare asked for ERA help. , Hr. 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 he worries bis - results of the 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 condi- i ing contractor. Hr. Jain says, so he hired ample, wiping down surfaces with a wet treatment "Vie should be getting a Uons elsewhere in our building and tn 1 his own. Confused about what sort of test­ rag but didn’t specify how to teU if poten- proper asbestos cleanup like the corpo­ neighboring buildings.” Melissa Coley, a 4 ing would be appropriate, he didn’t do tial hazards bad been AHminntM > rate tenants are getang," he says. spokeswoman to Brookfield Properties j’ any. “We have b^n left to fend for our­ // J ^EPA officials in New York say they 1 In addition to American Express, com­ Corp., owner of the Dow Jones building, i selves to protect our own health and Il Mdn’t take the initiative Indoors because panies such as Merrill Lynch & Co., Bank says. “We have directly addressed the i safety.” says Hr. Jain, 40. Il .rocltherFEMA nor New York aty asked it 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- ~ I V to. Bonnie Bellow, an EPA spokeswoman and Dow Jones & Co., publisher of this tlnue to monitor the air quality in our 1 1st attacks destroyed the Twin Towers and fa New York, says the regional office had I newspaper, say they have cleaned and buUdiogs.* unleashed a massive cloud of debris on >ts hands full for months focusing on the tested extensively. The potentially dan­ Tta protect against asbestos or other i . lower Manhattan, the continuing cleanup /tutdoor cleanup. “As the outdoor condi- gerous substance of greatest concern is toxins that might be lingering In the < " presents a stark case of haves and have- ^ons 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 Mear that there was confusion and con- < landlords have conducted pricey clean­ Km about any residual dust that might ---------------------------------------- - , ups, costing millions of dollars each. But gmaln in people’s homes, we proceeded until recently, government agencies at all Avith the development of a {dan for clean- The main blame for the helter-skelter indoor 1 levels failed to mount a centralized cam-’ Hng up dust lndoors.“ Ms. Bellow says. paign of scrubbing and testing Indoor . t. For Its part. FEMA says it deferred to cleanup ofdowntown Manhattan can be traced I spaces. Asaresultimanyresidential build­ toe EPA. “We were waiting to them to ings, schools and small businesses have re- Hell us there was a problem with indoor to the shuffling of responsibility among J , celved only spotty attention. ■ - . quality,” says Brad Galr, ttie senior -Even without firm government guid- \ i f FEMA official <m the scene. Geoffrey government agencies. waeetm^y large companies and land- l' klords •hvere quick 1 .no spend a lot of . I »money, upgrade Bl- ■ ' Ryan, a spokesperson with the city’s ' DEP, says bis agency “wwked coopera- •• lively from day one with ERA.” The city retardant in the Trade Center’ thS can owns the tower housing RBC CapltS Mar- i 1 Advised landlords they had to clean build- cause lung disease and cancer if there is kets, says it installed filter systems to g ^ktration systems n , fags according to a “strict protocol,” Mr. exposure to a period of years. Others block more than 95% of particles measur- S land bring in ex-. I i-.Ryan says. “If there was a problem, ww include pSverized cement and glass, Ing one micron or larger. The same was f, I toerts,” says Hugh koviewed it” which can cause re^iratory problems, done at many other large commercial L f toufinan. a policy Beginning last fall, die EPA came un- ^nd mercury from incinerated buildings in the vicinity. Before Sept U, t imalyst at the Envi- der escalating pressure from residents computers and lighting, which can cause the standard for corporate offices was , Ronmental Protec- and local politicians who argued that as nervous-system damage. between 60% and 85%. J Bon Agency's head­ quarters in Wasb- the country’s premier environmental TO eliminate asbestos, big companies By contrast, at Stuyvesant High ' fa^n. But lacking agency. It ought to oversee all cleaning, have stripped out carpets, cubicle walls. School, lour blocks north of Ground Zero, ' « ^ffidal coordina- In Hay, eight months after Sept 11, the celling tiles and upholstered furniture, the New York aty Department of Educa- I 9 Win—fnehtriiny EPA finally responded by offering to re- American Express says it threw out tion upgraded classroom filters to block J bis own. move any asbestos from 30,000 resi- enough furniture and floor covering to fewer than 40% of such tiny particles. ' Sudhir Jain uy-many . dences in tower Manhattan. That work fill a football field piled five feet ligh. Students bad moved back into the large, . «*uiJer landlords will begin in September. RBC Capital Markets, a -unit of Royal - academically elite public school In Octo- ’ Itat emners. Hr. Kaufman adds. 1 give But to get a cleanup, tenants or own- torik of Canada, which occupies five her. two months before Ore filters were 3 Ibe private sectm- tremendous iuilos_^l ers must ask the EPA to come in. That floors of a black tower on the eastern Improved and while trucks were still to- , ®ve the public sector an F-minus.” means while one apartment may be edge of the Trade Center site, says it rying dusty debris to barges in the Bud- , . Mr.Jain’slandlordatSOBatteryPlace, cleaned, the nearby elevator shaft or unit even vacuumed hundreds of thousands of .eon River just SO yards away- , the DeMatteis Organization, says through next door may not. creating the possibU- individual pieces of paper. -so here were these «»pitaiigtg pro- , a spokesman that It told tenants to hire ity of recontamlnatlon. The agency win Wall Street Journal employees began tecting their employees, and we have vul- t flieir own cleaners and submit hills for pos­ dean hallways and lobbies only if asked returning to the Dow Jones offices adja- nerable young kids who received less pro- r sible reimbursement by the owner’s insur­ by a landlord. The EPA isn’t offering to cent to the Trade Center site in late July, tection at school. I find that outrageous.” r ance company. Only a handful-Mr. Jain dean small businesses or schools. Tbm Lauricella. a Journal reporter and says Marilena Christodoulou, until re- isn't among them-bave submitted such * —Jj bills, the spokesman says. Those claims T — 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 Jitm to Page All, Columii 1 ..

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