NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document
1-24-02 ; 12:30PM;NYC Law Department ;i2i236i8Y65 # 15/ 55
JFlN-22-2002 09=50 O5EP UNIT RM. 7345 202 324 9235 P. 11/43
Industrial Hygiene Survey_________________________ Federal Bureau of Investigation, Staten Island, NY
Cobalt O.l mg/M3
Chromium I mg/M3
Copper I mg/M3
Iron 10ms/M3
Lead 0.05 mg/M3
Magnesium 15 mg/Mj
Manganese 5 mg/M3
Nickel lmg/M3
Thallium O.l mg/M3
Vanadium 0.5 mg/M3
Zinc 5 mg/M3
Silica Dust
Crystalline silica is found in materials such as concrete, masonry and rock. When these materials
are made into a fine dust and suspended in the air, such as in the WTC buildings, breathing in
these fine particles can produce lung damage, leading to a disease called silicosis. The
crystalline silica dust limit is for respirable dust (<10 microns) and is regulated as an eight-hour
time weighted average. The current OSHA PEL for respirable dust containing crystalline silica
(quartz) for the general industry is measured by (mg/M3) and is calculated using the following
formula;
PEL - 10mg/M3
% silica +2
In addition, for cristobalite and tridymite forms, the same formula should be used for
determining the PELs, divided by one-half. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and
Health's (NIOSH) recommended exposure limit (REL) for respirable crystalline silica is 0.05
mg/M3 (50 mg/M3) for up to ten hours/day during a 40-hour work week. Where no silica
detected in the sample the PEL is 5 mg/m3. Where the sample is 100 % quartz the PEL is 0.1
mg/m3. This gives a range for permissible exposure limits for respirable dust of 0.1 to 5 mg/m3
depending upon the crystalline silica content.
Volatile Organic Compounds
The charcoal tube samples were desorbed and scanned on a gas chromatograph for 36 different
volatile organic compounds. The detection limit for each VOC ranged from 3 to 5 micrograms.
The volume of air sampled for the VOC samples ranged from 60 to 80 liters. This gives a
detection limit for each VOC ranged from 0.04 to 0.06 mg/m3. The compounds tested have
permissible exposure limits that range from the lowest limit for benzene of 3 mg/M3 to the
highest limit set for acetone of 2400 mg/m3. The OSHA Z tables provide the permissible
exposure limit for each of the compounds tested. In the results section of this report the PEL is
provided for each of the compounds detected.
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NYC-WTC_000152572
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