DEP fax header with article title, June 2002

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

JfiN-09-2002 10:14 NYC DOH LASU 212 676 6159 P.02/06

"No one knows what was burning News Graphics Latest graphics; down there" at ground zero, he • Tarrarist funds said "I am concerned that in five * **phan OoMBrnmant • Archive years or 10 years, I'm going to be part of a cancer cluster." Live Online OiseuBeien* Latest chats and transcripts; ■ Upeeminff Diseu—iana Nearly four months after the * America at War Archives World Trade Center attacks, the fires there are largely Guides • Uhderatandinp Pakistan extinguished. But fears of the • Bin Laden's World toxic brew left behind in lower • UnderatsndinaAfahaiilstsn • India and the War an Terray Manhattan's air remain — as do concerns that the U.S. Tranaerlpta Environmental Protection Agency Latest texts and statements: and other government agencies • fiinJLadstLlafifi • Mora Tranecrinte did not warn residents sufficiently or soon enough of the dangers..

Many of those who live or work What's Your Ouinion? downtown report strikingly similar E-Mail Thia Article (iyi Printer-Friendly Version symptoms: nosebleeds, sore Subscribe to The Peat throats, bronchial infections and an endless racking cough.

"People's airways are narrowing down," said Dr. Stephen Levin, medical director of the nationally renowned Mount Sinai I. J. Selikoff Center for Occupational and Environmental Medicine. "We have cases of new onset reactive airway disease for people who were in excellent physical condition prior to September 11th."

About one-fourth of the city's tirefighters have complained of severe coughing after working at ground zero, and more than a thousand have tiled notices of claims against^the city. Last week four Port Authority police officers were reassigned from the site after they tested positive for elevated mercury levels in their blood.

Dozens of students at nearby Stuyvesant High School have complained of rashes, nosebleeds, headaches and respiratory infections. Three teachers have left because of respiratory problems.

"I'm really concerned," said Marilena Christadoulou, head of the school's Parents' Association. "It's a concern that comes from the whole unprecedented and unknown nature of what is down at ground zero."

The EPA, which has conducted thousands of tests of Lower Manhattan's air since Sept. 11, has repeatedly assured residents that the air is safe to breathe. Doctors note that some symptoms could be caused or enhanced by stress - and many will undoubtedly dissipate as the last smoldering fires go out and the air grows clearer.

http7/www. washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/Al 1173-2002Jan7.html 01/08/2002

NYC-WTC_000152042