DEP organizational chart for 9/11 emergency response, Sept 2001

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document NQ Yost A.1c- Ol NYC-WTC_000152165 ASBESTOS IN DUST FROM THE COLLAPSE By MARK STAMEY and CLEMENTE LIS! Tons of dust from the mangled World Trade Center towers contain _ Canicer-causing asbestos — .and federal officials ' want to use Superfund money to help clean it up. Tests on debris from the wreckage show ele- vated levels of asbestos, federal Environmental Protection Agency spokesman Chris Paulitz said yesterday. EPA chief Christie Todd Whitman called as- bestos one of the major environmental hazards stemming from the trag- edy. “My main concern is that we continue to mon- itor dust in the air,” Whitman said. “Right now, there’s no immedi- ate health threat to peo- ple outside the ground- zero area.” Samples taken by The Post at the disaster scene and analyzed by an inde- pendent, certified labora- tory were found to con- tain 1.5 percent chrysotile asbestos. One percent or less is considered to be within the normal range. Experts said the dust spewed by the collapsing skyscrapers rained down on parts of Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. Some of the deadly fi- bers — which are one- one-hundredth the diam- eter. of a human hair — stayed airborne, and can remain so for months. “It is dangerous,” said Howard Bader, of H.A. Bader Consultants, an as- bestos-removal firm. While Whitman said only one sample in two dozen showed levels higher than 1 percent, Bader insisted, “Having less than 1_ percent doesn’t mean it’s safe.” The _higher-than-nor- mal EPA sample, taken from a car near the attack site, registered 4.5 per- cent. . Some “EPA workers spent yesterday hosing down areas heavily coated with chalky film left over from the disas- ter. One of the more com- mon diseases caused by exposure to asbestos is mesotheliomia. “Mesothelioma attacks the stomach and lung lin- ings,” Bader said. “High exposure is not re- quired.” Bader said the airborne fibers are the most dan- gerous. “Asbestos can travel * miles in the wind,” he said. “They are finding debris in Coney Island and Breezy Point.”