Building interior survey proposal for WTC vicinity, 2002

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

New York City Department of Environmental Protection Bureau of Environmental Compliance Asbestos Control Program

Environmental Survey and Assessment of Buildings in the Vicinity of the WTC

This proposal for sampling and assessment of building interior spaces was developed using information provided by the Indoor Air Taskforce. The taskforce has representatives from various agencies including but not limited to the USEPA, ATSDR, NYSDOH, OSHA, NYCDOH, and the NYCDEP.

This evaluation and assessment is targeted to identify substances based on current knowledge of existing contaminants after building collapses and fires, and on the review of information from sampling data to date. The Indoor Air Taskforce has identified seven preliminary contaminants that may have impacted buildings in the vicinity of the World Trade Center disaster. These contaminants include asbestos, fibrous glass, refractory ceramic fibers, silica, dioxin, lead and PAHs.

The initial phase of this building interior space evaluation will be performed at 100 buildings within a four-block radius of the WTC site. The selection of buildings will be based on the location, lack of sampling information from the building owner, requests for sampling from building occupants, and input from various agencies and/or organizations. Four units in each building will be selected for sampling and evaluation. The assessments will include environmental sampling for each of the identified contaminants.

The methodology for evaluation and assessment will vary dependent on the contaminant.

Asbestos

Asbestos air samples will be collected and analyzed by TEM analysis. Five samples collected simultaneously at each location with a minimum volume of 1200 liters. The re-occupancy standard of 70 s/mm2 will be used as the basis for evaluation of the data.

Recommendations from the task force will be used to evaluate and assess the following contaminants fibrous glass, refractory ceramic fibers, silica, dioxin, lead, and PAHs.

NYC-WTC_000164875