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By AUSON GENDAR dered to the ground Sept. 11. The immediate board’s results and took its own samples DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER health concern was for those who lived, there yesterday, agency spokeswoman Mary > Tribeca parents took it upon themselves to worked or went to school in lower Manhat­ Helen Cervantes said. I< tan and for the rescue workers who have The results from those tests will deter­ I test the sand at a playground just blocks from Ground Zero and found double the al­ been,digging through the smoking debris. mine whether any of the park’s topsoil has lowed federal level of asbestos. But now, people in a wide area, including to be removed along with the sandbox sand, The city and the private board that nins Brooklyn Heights, which was downwind of said Bill Tai, the city’s district manager for the park closed the playground Friday, the the plume, are wondering whether their lower Manhattan parks. day the results were made known. parks and backyards were dusted with a Tai said similar tests would be taken in cn cocktail of chemicals from the spewn debris downtown parks, including City Hall Park, “We decided we wanted to do the testing on our own. We are just north of Chambers St., where most of the testing is taking place. and dust. Some soil samples taken from Washington Market’s lawn contained 3% asbestos, while Battery Park, Bowling Green and Rector Park. There were no immediate plans to test parks north of City Hall, he said. I S’ We didn’t know when or if testing might get sand from the sandbox had 2% asbestos in Although no level of asbestos is consid­ to us,” said Linda Lakhdhir, president of the some cases. ered safe, doctors say that the serious health I board of the Washington Market Community The Environmental Protection Agency has problems associated with the insulator — I Park, on the northwestern corner of Cham­ bers and Greenwich Sts. “We wanted to be cautious.” determined that material containitig 1% as­ bestos officially triggers federal rules for em­ ployee protection and cleanup. cancer and lung scarring — generally take years of exposure. Because it can be in in­ haled, airborne asbestos is considered more s Debris and grit-filled dust filled downtown streets when the World Trade Center thun- The EPA, which already had an air moni­ tor near the park, was alerted to the park dangerous than asbestos in dust, soil or sand. I