66 JOHN 59 MAIDEN LANE

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

290-0058), “average amounts in buildings known to contain asbestos, using microvac test is + i,000 s/cm2.

It is our understanding, as administrative law judges who enforce asbestos abatement regulations (and the EPA agrees), that asbestos-contaminated carpeting and upholstery cannot be effectively cleaned, but must be removed. Such removal is to be done as an Asbestos Abatement Project, with safeguards for workers, employees, and other occupants in place.2

One DEP attorney told us that the asbestos test results that so alarmed both Dr. Jenkins and Mr. Cahill, and who both recommended abatement, “was not worth the paper it was printed on”. Instead, DEP management undertook a “cleaning” on three different evenings beginning on 4/2/03, and some sort of air sampling with no one present. We were not informed as to what resulted from this cleaning ad are concerned that it may have further re­ entrained asbestos fibers.

At this point, we are desperately concerned with DEP’s actions and inactions, its refusal to release any information and, most of all, its failure to act to protect its employees and members of the public from a known carcinogen. It has been established that a substantial amount of asbestos is embedded in the carpeting.’

EPA statutes and policies dictate that ANY exposure to asbestos is hazardous, but no attempt to abate the problem is planned. According to scientific authority: “Special precautions must be taken for buildings containing asbestos. This conservative approach is necessary because asbestos is a known human carcinogen. In the absence of contradictory data, health scientists feel that the carcinogenicity of asbestos follows a linear, zero-threshold model, which means that inhaling a single fiber represents a risk, and doubling the exposure doubles the risk, and so on.

The inhalation of asbestos can result in the following diseases: 1. Asbestosis - a debilitating lung disease similar to silicosis; 2. Lung cancer - a usually fatal malignancy; and/or 3. Mesothelioma - an incurable fatal cancer of the mesothelial lining of the chest

Activities like dusting, sweeping, and vacuuming are mechanically aggressive and are most likely to re-entrain dust and presumable asbestos.” Pp 179-180, Settled Asbestos Dust. Sampling & Analysis. (1994). James R. Millette and Steven M. Hays (Lewis Publishers, CRC Press).

^As Administrative Law Judges, we enforce the provisions of New York City’s Asbestos Control Program, Title 15, RCNY.

’We do not know how objects such as files on desks, moveable furniture, or bookshelves were initially cleaned, but fear that what was done was inadequate

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