Analysis of very fine and coarse particulate levels at WTC

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

JAN-25-2002 FRI 09:40 AH FAX NO. P. 09 Piul-Pi).|Wi(li: NV pnkldii i)wlfn«litri»le dimg«

choking dust that terrified survivors and rescue workers gulped down as they fled from the collapsing lowers. 'Ibc dust storm that crashed through Manhattan like a sonic boom on Sept, 11 blew in windows and doors many blocks from ground zcn^Alr cnnditioning units on rooftops ond in windows sucked pound.s of dust into apaift^n^aiid building venation .sy.stei^. Some Kportmcnls had inches of gray dost covering everything. Most others within blocks of the attack had floors, walls, window coverings and furniture covered in h talclikc film.

Those continuing the recovery effort at ground zero have hundreds of environmental and occupational health specialists hovering nearby, trying to keep the workers in the pit safe and diminish future exposure to asbestos and other dangerous material.

But many of the 340,000 or so people who live in the lower part of that island feel they were abundoned and, at the least, fed conflicting information by federal, .slate and city officials on how 10 avoid asbestos exposure, "H's like all of us who live down hero really don't matter to anyone in any government. We've ptcfly n\uch been left to fend for mirsclve.s," said Steve Swaney, who, with hja wife, lived in a Battery Park apartment.

The World Trade Center, two blocks away, which once filled his view, has been reduced to a huge hole in the ground. U spews an acrid dusty stench, nothing like the tiinc-honorcd bouquet of rotusting chestnuts which used to permeate lower Manhattan through the fall and winter.

The Swaneys' patio doors were open when the buildings collapsed. Their one-bedroom apartment, like many of the 238 others in tliclr I5-story building, was covered in dust. 'Iliosc with imsuntneu paid as much as $10,000 to have professional asbestos crews clean their aparfmenis, .Swaney said. The Inndlotd cleaned the rest.

"Bui there was still dust all over the place, and we couldn't get .anyone to tell us how much 11 sb estop was .still there." fie .said, The tenants paid to have the dust analyzed, and the dust ciiniained levels of asbestos above 1 percent, which the RPA Considers unsafe.

'I*hc landlord sent In another cleaning crew.

On ihc slreeu nine floors below Swaney's balcony, men in air tanks and moon .suits slowly waddle behind and beside huge gushing mobile water tanks and purring SuperVac vacuum trucks. The bizarro ballet was precisely orclicslraicd to wash out, suck up and capture the most minute pocket of dust from Battery Park's promenade, playgrounds, sidewalks, and even children's sand linxM in the pnrk. Swaney, a SS-year-old computer consultant, has a sick wife. Her ribs arc sore from hours of gafigmg, coughing and choking from the same dust that F.PA crews arc so carefully removing on the street out front.

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