Article excerpt on asbestos risk assessment for Lower Manhattan residents,

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, in one of his recent weekly radio addresses, said compensation claims will exceed $7 billion from the more than 1,300 firefighters and other Ground Zero rescue workers suffering from respiratory illnesses. The actual payout will be far less, he said.

One reason for the difficulty in determining the area's overall air quality is the lack of consistency to the pattern in which dust spread from the site, and the amount of toxic material in any given pile of dust. Buckley said the Rutgers study found asbestos deposits ranging from just under the federal limit of one fiber per each cubic centimeter of air to three times that amount.

"The danger from fibers," Buckley said, "is that this stuff is the right size and shape to enter the lungs and not leave. One strand of asbestos in a (cubic centimeter) of air is not a problem. But how many CCs do you breathe in a day? When you add it up, breathing contaminated air becomes a serious problem because asbestos has a cumulative effect."

The dust also had varying amounts of toxic metals, such as mercury and lead. and chemicals such as RGBs and dioxin.

The ERA provided several high-powered vacuums to remove mounds of dust from streets around Ground Zero, and worked with OSHA and the city Department of Health to hose the outside of many office buildings in the area. The New York City Board of Education is responsible for testing air and dust in the eight schools near Ground Zero and so far has spent about $5 million to clean the schools in compliance with OSHA and ERA standards, board spokeswoman Catie Marshall said.

The board also maintains an air-quality team in each school to take air samples 100 times each school day.

But no agency has checked the air quality in residences in the area, tenants and some elected officials said.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, in a Feb. 28 letter to ERA Administrator Christie Whitman, said the agency should spearhead a task force to deal with the problem facing the residents.

Clinton's efforts resulted in the formation this month of two task forces on indoor air quality, one run by the city's Office of Emergency Management and a second by the ERA.

Among the first actions to be taken by the groups was the announcement last week that dozens of contract workers would spend about two months cleaning buildings surrounding the site that are caked with potentially harmful solid debris. The debris poses no immediate health threat, but city testers found possibly

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