Analysis of very fine and coarse particulate levels at WTC

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

JAN-25-2002 FRI 09:40 AM FAX NO. P. 08 I’OMi NY oineiub umlL'mliniAU daiijtef

polilicnl leaders found ju.st the opposite. Taking hundreds of samples, many inside apartments, offices and condos, these experts used the newest electron microscope technology and fiber counting protocols. They found far more asbestos fibers than did government investigators. These private experts - all regularly u.scd by the government as consultants — found levels in the dwelling that alarmed n>any asses,sing Ihc health risk New Yorkers face,

"Tlie.se eminent asbestos reseuichcrs brought state-of-the-art methods to lower Manhattan and the significance of what they found with the new technology is dramatically different than what RPA and New York State reported," .said Calc Jenkins, a senior EPA chemist in the agency’s husatdous waste division. "For cycryjjjSbcstofl fiber EPA detected, the new mcthojKliyigdhYJhc outside e_xp.crt.s_found nuac^lcruttiia said. "I'his^HoohhportnjiVadrf^^^ to be ignored if you really care about the I health of the public," I I • Jenkins, a 22-year veteran of the F.PA, talked about the asbestos level.? that researchers Eric I Chat Held and John Komlnsky found In apartments and condos near the collapse that had not been cleaned or denned improperly, I I "If people continue living and working in places that still hove dust in the carpets, furniture, I drapes and healing apd cooling system, these fibers will continue to be resuspended," Jenkin.? explained. ''Lllbt elevated nsk_couWJ^^rn aro^d onc-in-a-thousand extra cancers to maybe ns high ftfl one In 10?*“' ’ ' ------------------------------- I - ,V»»* .•*••• ~

f-SRtoytci’ A^dciol hcalth-cxpcct^ ** tw** toxicologists, an epidemiologist and physician -- from the EPA and the Centers for Disease Control, have studied the data gathered by Chatfield, Komiiisky and a team headed by Hugh Granger of HP Environmental in Virginia. They agreed with Jenkins' inlcrprotation of the data.

Officials ftt EPA bcndqunrtcrs declined repeated requests to comment on these statements.

No one really knows how many, if any, people might bc killed by the asbestos. But a study released ihroo week:} .ago by F.PA investigators on the health risk.? to vermiculite miners and their families in Libby, Mont, bodes ominously for what New Yorkers may face.

"3110 conccntrniions of asbestos in both settled dusts inside homes in Libby is comparable to the settled du.sls Inside the buildings in lower Manhattan," Jenkins said.

She and others in the agency are questioning, why, if Libby is dangerous enough to be declared a Superfund site, is the KVA shrugging off oven higher levels in New York.

"It is Unfatliomablo to believe that E?A can stand behind antiquated science when the report on Libby, Issued by the flame agency, Irrefutably documents the validity of the new methods," Jenkin.? said.

Many federal employees, contract scientists and physicians believe the confusion over how fcdevnl agencies we handling asbestos from the collapse is exacerbated by the government's long-fought internal dispntus over what kind of asbostos is dangerous and how many fibers of what size it takes to sicken or kill.

J.X)WfiR MANllATI'AN HESIDLMTS FEEL ABANDONED Nothing.can ho done about the enormous amount of asbestos and other toxic substances in the

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