EPA report review comments, April 2003

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

Gilsanan, Michael From: Kelly McKinney [[email protected]] Sent: Monday, April 07, 2003 9:44 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Fwd: RE: EPA Draft Report

Mike, We talked briefly last week about this report:

http://oaspub.epa.gov/eims/eimscomm.getfile?p_download_id=36387

"Exposure and Human Health Evaluation of Airborne Pollution from the World Trade Center Disaster"

National Center for Environmental Assessment Office of Research and Development U.S. Environmental Protection Agency October, 2002

The Law Department has asked us to comment. They asked me today about comments raised on page 134 about DEP sampling. Can you take a look at it and tell me what you think? The issue is time-sensitive since comments are due tomorrow.

>>> "Cohen, Jay" <[email protected] > 04/07/03 09:30AM »> Kelly:

Thanks. From my layman's perspective, I think that your comments were very valuable, especially the comment about outliers. I do have a very modest background in statistics and understand what you are saying. I think that it is important that we raise the uncertainties where EPA makes statements that can hurt us in the future. If OEM does not submit comments quickly concerning the access issue, can you do it? The issue is raised again on page 122 of the report alleging difficulty of access for both EPA and NYSDEC. I think that it is very important that the City responds to this. Also, do you know anything about EPA's comment on page 134 that the City's DEP used varying sampling and analytical methods concerning indoor sampling of WTC dust? Do you know if this is true and was it acceptable procedure? I provided the report to DEP, but have heard nothing from them.

---- Original Message---- From: Kelly McKinney [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Monday, April 07, 2003 9:20 AM To: [email protected] Cc: Jessica Leighton Subject: Re: EPA Draft Report

Several of us have reviewed the document and we have had some internal discussion about it. We can't agree on the nature of our comments however. I disagree with the discussion about impacts to indoor air. I believe EPA makes strong statements with little data to support them. These include the following:

page 4 bottom "The issue of alkalinity of WTC dust and its potential as a possible health concern...After late September, indoor exposures to such dust probably warrant more concern than outdoor exposures for possible acute irritative effects or more chronic health effects, not only because of the basic nature of some constituent particles but also because of other unusual features, such as slender microscopic glass fibers with toxic materials 1

NYC-WTC_000163101