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

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

“We’re not seeing any violations,’’ THE CHEMICALS the official said, “not seeing anytljihg out of the ordinary, with the excep­ tion of small episodic spikes bas^nn Monitors Say wind shifts or activity at grpimd I zero.’’ I The best approach for people liear Health Risk I the attack site, experts said, would 1 be to limit their exposure to sntoke and dust as much as possible;'by From Smoke . using filtering masks and washing coated clothing in separate loads from other laundry. Is Very Small “There’s a lot of debris and vari­ ous kinds of dust,’’ Ms. Bellow isald. “The best advice for workers is to By ANDREW C. REVKIN - wear the proper protection.” The persistent pall of smoke wsift- Federal and city health officials ing from the remains of the World said they had a stockpile of ie;&00 Trade Center poses a very small,’ hnd paper-filter masks, 5,000 mor^feo- steadily diminishing, risk to the pub­ phisticated masks able to filter ”the lic, environmental officials and doc­ tiniest particles, and 2,000 sets*>01 tors said yesterday. goggles on hand for rescuers to wear. There could be a slight health threat, they said, to city residents with weakened immune systefms, heart disease or asthma, and to res­ Dust, but no harmful cue workers who did not wear pro­ tective gear or who smoke. Smoking levels of asbestos or greatly amplifies the effects of some kinds of pollution, scientists said. lead, officials say. But over all, the danger was ho greater than that on a smoggy day, some officials said. Some government scientists, At St. Mary’s Hospital in Crown speaking only on the condition of Heights, Brooklyn, which treated anonymity, said they were con­ many victims of the attack who fled cerned that city health officials had across the Brooklyn Bridge, there not done more to encourage those was no sign of a spike in respiratory people who were caked in the dust as illness, said Ernst J. Baptiste, the the disaster unfolded to avoid hospital’s executive director. spreading it around once they were The situation was similar at Belle­ safe at home. !• vue Hospital Center, which treated But tests of air and the dust coat­ dozens of injuries. Hospital officials ing parts of Lower Manhattan* ap­ said only a small number of pedple peared to support the official view walked in complaining of breathing expressed by city, state and federal troubles. u' health and environmental officials; The first volcano-like clouds jof that health problems from pollution dust and smoke from the fires.and would not be one of the legacies of the building collapses undoubtedly con­ attacks. Tests of air samples taken tained potentially harmful particles j and gases, which have since dissipat- downwind of the smoldering ruW>le I ed, said Dr. Mark D. Siegel, the direc­ on Tuesday and Wednesday — main­ ly in Brooklyn — disclosed no harm­ tor of the medical intensive care unit ful levels of asbestos, lead or toxic at Yale-New Haven Hospital. ‘ organic compounds, officials of. the The most visible ingrediat, federal Environmental Protection though — the large particles of dust Agency said yesterday. and ash — was probably the 10st Some samples of the dust .that dangerous, he said. cloaked the disaster scene, victims The lungs, throat and nasal pas­ and rescuers on Tuesday showed sages are designed to eject large slightly elevated levels of lead and particles, like the heavy ash that asbestos, the agency said. But.iy coated Lower Manhattan and fell on Wednesday, levels of the substances many fleeing people, he said. But had dropp^ below the thresholds of gases and the finest particles can any concern, said Bonnie Bellotv, a penetrate deep in the lungs and re­ spokeswoman for the Environmental main behind even after extensive'^fits of coughing. Protection Agency. Tests on samples Generally, the biggest risk p6^ taken yesterday would not be com­ by those substances would be to peo­ pleted until today, she said. Continued monitoring of fine soot ple who have a heightened sensitMty to chemicals, Dr. Siegel said. He §aid N'/Iimgs particles and other kinds of air con­ taminants by state environmentalof- ficials also showed “nothing oui of that one of the lowest risks wouldhe „ from inhaling asbestos fibers, if‘t&iy were released when the towers fell. ^m-oi the ordinary,’’ a state official said. “Even in a worst-case scenario,’’ he said, “most people with asbestos- related lung disease usually had i long-term occupational exposure;”

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