EPA response letter with respirator policy revisions, August 2003

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

Reports on Lack of Respirator Use

[This section should be completely deleted, because while it purports to represent a total picture of site operations, it in fact presents a very narrow and skewed snapshot by the author, who was at the site for a very limited number of hours, and who misidentified a key City agency - the Department of Design and Construction - and its role in the rescue and recovery efforts.! An October 2001 report' by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences discussed worker safety issues at the WTC site for the period up to October 5,2001. The report's observations generally focused on construction workers at the site and not Fire Department rescue team or Federal disaster assistance personnel. According to the report;

Respiratoiy protection was rare with the ex-eeption of heavy equipment operators. Further, workers were obsened in the smoke plume emanating from the-pile without hard hats, eve wear, or- respirators. [This should not be presented as the norm. There were thousands of rescue and clean-up workers on the Site and a DDC official monitoring safety at the site personally observed many who did wear respirators diligently. There are thousands of photographs and hours of video that indicate the use of respiratory equipment and hard hats. Respirator use was tracked and enforced throughout the response to the disaster.

Workers did not deeon Idecontaminatel after leaving the-s-j-ter IThis implies a hazardous waste operation, and this rescue, recovery mid clean-up operation was not such an event.! The hand/face and boot wash stations did not appear to be used by most of the workers.

During the September 22-26,2001, period, an increase in worker protection was observed, notably respiratory protection. Vehicles leaving the site began to be hosed down.

1 “Worker Education and Training Program (WETP) Response to the World Trade Center Disaster: Initial WETP Grantee Response and Preliminary Assessment of Training Needs," Donald Elisburg, John Moran, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences WETP, National Clearinghouse for Worker Safety and Health Training, October 6, 2001.

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