NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document
s/mL X time period (years) total dose (s-year/mL)
0.16 (14/365)x( 9Z24) 0.0023
10 (14/365)x(3/24) 0.0479
0.000006 85 0.0005
total dose (cumulative exposure) 0.0507
From Table 3, the increased risk of getting mesothelioma will be almost 2 per 100,000 for the
one week volunteer service in New York City. The whole life in an urban setting contributed
very little to this risk. Going indoors to the contaminated building for 3 hours a day, rather than
staying outside, represents essentially all of this risk.
If the volunteer had stayed outside for the whole time, the risks would be as follows:
s/mL X time period (years) total dose (s-year/mL)
0.16 (14/365)x(12Z24) 0.0031
0.000006 85 0.0005
total dose (cumulative exposure) 0.0036
The increased risk of mesothelioma would be around 1 in 100,000, due almost entirely to the 2
weeks service m NYC.
Scenario 2 - Resident of Lower Manhattan in contaminated building
A resident works m lower Manhattan and was present nearby during the collapse of the World
Trade Center, but not in a building whose windows were blown out. The resident was engulfed
by the dust cloud while walking up to Warren Street to her/his apartment. The resident stayed
one night with no electricity and water because of 3 cats before leaving for two days, returning
September 14 after restoration of services. There was no forced evacuation of the apartment
building, many residents remained even when there was no electricity or water.
The landlord was in the process of cleaning common areas, which were primarily carpeted, by
common cleaning techniques, vacuuming and dusting, starting September 14, for 4 days. The
resident performed her/his own apartment cleaning and has remained in place. The resident only
wore a dust mask, as recommended by the New York City Department of Health (NYC DOH)
while cleaning the apartment,’® which provided no protection against the asbestos.
The apartment building interiors only had a minimal, small amounts of dust from the WTC.
Walter Mugdan, Counsel for EPA’s Region 2, stated that the NYC DOH Recommendations
should be followed in situations with minimal, small amounts of WTC dust.” An apartment
with just such minimal, small amount of WTC dusts was the subject of the Ground Zffo Task
Force study, and the asbestos concentrations, and may be found in Table 2. A color photograph
of a dark table is included in this study, showing what would be considered “small amounts” and
“minimal” dusts by most people.”
Lowcr Manhattan where the resident works had similar cleaning measures
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NYC-WTC_000154665
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