Respiratory ailments persist in residents, workers, students since collapse of twin towers

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Anxieties over toxins rise at Ground Zero

Respiratory ailments persist in residents, workers, students since collapse

of twin towers

By Charisse

USA TODAY

NEW YORK -- In the neighborhoods closest to the site of the worst terrorist

attacks in U.S. history, a new fear has taken hold. Despite assertions by

local and federal officials that the air downtown is safe to breathe, many

who live and work there remain concerned about toxins such as lead, PCBs and

asbestos that the terrorist attacks may have left behind.

Since the attacks Sept. 11, many recovery workers, residents and students

downtown have complained of tightness in their chests, bloody noses, sinus

infections and other respiratory ailments.

Roughly one in four firefighters who have been working at Ground Zero have

what some are calling ''World Trade Center cough'' or another respiratory

complaint, fire department officials say. About 750 have had to take medical

leave, according to the firefighters' union.

Tests of eight Port Authority employees working at Ground Zero showed

elevated levels of mercury in their blood. Though no one is certain that

working at the site caused the problem, subsequent tests found that the

mercury levels of six workers returned to normal after they were reassigned.

Now, the Environmental Protection Agency and local health officials are

under fire from politicians and others who accuse them of failing to

adequately inform the public about potential long-term health risks from

asbestos, heavy metals and various chemicals. They say officials downplayed

negative test results of such substances as benzene, dioxins and PCBs and

have been slow in releasing test findings to the public.

The EPA disputes those criticisms and says the outdoor air downtown poses no

long-term health risks.

The interiors of at least a few buildings, however, were coated with enough

asbestos to be subject to EPA rules for asbestos cleanup. A private

scientific firm hired by elected officials, for example, found high asbestos

levels in dust at two apartment buildings near Ground Zero. EPA rules

require that any dust or debris containing more than 1% asbestos be handled

according to special rules, not just swept up by homeowners.

Though several scientists say it appears that the levels of chemicals were

not present in high enough amounts and that exposure was too minimal to

cause long-range concerns, many of the toxins can have serious effects.

Long-term exposure to many of these substances can cause major health

problems. Asbestos can cause cancer. PCBs from electronic components and

benzene from burning jet fuel are also carcinogens. Dioxins, particulates

released in a fire, can be carcinogenic and cause reproductive problems.

Long-term exposure to lead can cause neurological damage. And PBDEs -- a

flame retardant often found in computers, foam padding and plastics -- are

likened to PCBs and could also be present.

Critics also say officials have not done sufficient testing inside buildings

and have failed to oversee proper cleaning of apartments and businesses.

Several community organizations have conducted their own indoor tests and

say their findings suggest that the potential health risks are greater than

officials have indicated.

Parents and teachers at P.S. 89 went to court to delay last Monday's

scheduled reopening of the elementary school in nearby Battery Park City.

They were concerned about the air quality and questioned whether the

children are ready to return to the area near the Trade Center. School

officials are trying to work out a timetable agreeable to the parents.

The EPA's ombudsman is investigating whether the agency has been slow

releasing test results and whether it knew its asbestos testing might be

flawed. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., has accused the EPA of maintaining a

double standard by cleaning its offices six blocks from Ground Zero more

thoroughly than it advised others to clean their buildings.

On Monday, Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., chairman of the Senate clean air

subcommittee, will hold a hearing in New York on downtown air quality at the

request of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y.

''Because there was absolutely no oversight on the city's part, we don't

know what lurks in people's apartments or businesses,'' says Madelyn Wils,

chairwoman of the community's advisory committee.

Wils lives six blocks from the World Trade Center and suffered a sore

throat, laryngitis and a sinus infection for a few months after the attacks.

''If you washed your walls and didn't clean your drapes, could you have

asbestos on your drapes?'' she asks. ''If you didn't get rid of your

children's toys, and they have stuffed animals, could they have asbestos?

Probably.''

In a survey of Lower Manhattan by the city health department and other

agencies in October, 34% of the 414 respondents said they did not feel that

their homes were safe to live in. In each of three neighborhoods profiled,

roughly 80% of those with safety concerns were worried about air quality,

and 35% of those surveyed wanted more information about proper cleaning.

Testing outdoors

The EPA says it has been vigilant in sharing information, meeting with

various agencies, regularly updating its Web site and even maintaining a lab

near Ground Zero. The lab performs daily tests for toxins and gives the

results immediately to workers at the site.

''Based on our findings, and now really more than 10,000 samples of a wide

range of substances, we have found no significant long-term risk posed by

the outdoor air,'' EPA spokeswoman Bonnie Bellow said last week.

Many ailments are likely to clear up and can be attributed to the pulverized

concrete and fiberglass that filled the air after the twin towers collapsed,

as well as the fires that burned at Ground Zero until late December, medical

experts say. Though some of the substances unleashed by the disaster are

known to be long-term health hazards, ''for the most part, people didn't get

a high enough or long enough exposure for long-term concerns,'' says

Lioy, associate director of the Environmental and Occupational Health

Sciences Institute in Piscataway, N.J.

''But,'' he adds, ''there's enough anecdotal information out there that some

good solid studies need to be done to confirm or deny the effects being

observed.''

Several studies are underway. Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York

City is examining how substances such as heavy metals, PCBs, dioxins and

other pollutants might affect pregnant women. City health officials plan to

start a registry of those near Ground Zero during the disaster. The Fire

Department is monitoring roughly 11,000 firefighters and emergency

technicians who spent time at the site for exposure to substances such as

heavy metals and mercury. The EPA also is conducting several studies on

exposure and toxicity at and near the site.

Ultimately, any potential risk might depend on the level of exposure and for

how long. For example, a worker caught in the first toxic plume on Sept. 11

might develop different health problems than a resident who was away but

returned days later to an apartment coated with dust. Scientists are trying

to figure out these different health risks.

Part of what makes long-term health predictions so difficult is that several

calamities occurred at once on Sept. 11. Jet fuel exploded, office equipment

melted in the searing fire and two skyscrapers collapsed, releasing an array

of substances that might have combined in unusual ways. ''So you have all

sorts of things that people never (before) breathed all at the same time,

and in quantities that we're just not used to,'' Lioy says.

The EPA has been checking the air, drinking water and river sediments for

asbestos, lead, metals, benzene, dioxin and other substances. Both federal

and city officials say there were sporadic spikes in asbestos, particularly

right after the attacks, but the levels have decreased over time. City

health officials say lead levels have not been higher than what is normally

seen in New York City dust. The EPA has taken 283 air samples since

September for lead and found only five above the federal acceptable

standards for adults and children.

Unhealthful levels of dioxins and PCBs measured by the EPA have been

concentrated only over Ground Zero, where workers must wear protective

equipment while removing debris from the site

Even so, some residents in the area say they believe that officials were

premature in declaring it safe to return to Lower Manhattan shortly after

the attacks.

''I don't know if they intentionally misled us, but they seem to have given

conflicting statements,'' resident Dennis Gault says about the EPA. ''My

concern is for the children in the neighborhood. . . . The asbestos, over 20

or 30 years, God knows what will be the effects. And then the PCBs and the

heavy metals are also quite frightening.''

Testing indoors

On Sept. 11, Gault's wife called him at work. He rushed to their apartment

in Gateway Plaza, about 300 yards from the World Trade Center. He shut the

windows, then ''we put the baby in the stroller, and we ran for our lives.''

When Gault returned home a week later, he noticed a dark powder coated the

apartment, he recalls. Gault, 36, had to toss away most of the furniture and

his 3-year-old daughter's toys. The apartment has been cleaned twice, but a

residue remains, he says. ''There was no testing of the air in my apartment

that I know of, so I don't know what the levels of asbestos were or the

other toxins,'' says Gault, a teacher.

He went back home in December to be closer to his job, while his wife and

daughter continue to stay with his in-laws. But he says his family may have

to rent another apartment.

''Before they come back, I'd like to have my apartment tested,'' says Gault,

who does not have renter's insurance to cover the costs. ''After all the

cleaning I've done myself and the cleaning by others, if there's still

levels of toxins in here, I'm going to relocate. Because for a 3-year-old,

there is no safe level of toxins.''

''I think the problem has moved inside to a lot of buildings,'' says

Kupferman, executive director of the New York Environmental Law and Justice

Project. ''What we have is many time bombs that are ticking, that only after

full testing, monitoring (and) proper cleanup . . . will we know if the

situation is safe.''

One independent industrial hygienist retained by Kupferman's organization

took samples at a 52-story apartment complex downtown after the building

cleanup began and came up with a reading of 550,000 asbestos fibers per

square centimeter. The acceptable limit is 500-1,000 fibers per square

centimeter. ''It's definitely an indication that there's a high level of

asbestos in the building,'' Kupferman says.

EPA officials say city agencies were in charge of indoor testing in Lower

Manhattan. But the EPA still advised that homes and businesses be

professionally cleaned.

''We have from the start been clear that what we found on the outside was

likely to have gotten inside people's apartments,'' Bellow says. ''And if

people were returning to dusty offices and homes, they could assume that

that material was asbestos-containing and that they needed to get that

material cleaned up using professional contractors.''

Some people say they want the EPA to step in and oversee the indoor cleanup.

Others say the city has failed to look out for those in Lower Manhattan.

''Overall, the responsibility for coordinating environmental response

belonged to the city of New York,'' says Goldstein of the Natural

Resources Defense Council.

City health officials say that before any building was reoccupied, landlords

were required to properly assess the building's safety. The health

department issued an advisory on how to adequately clean building interiors,

and the city's Department of Environmental Protection handles any specific

concerns about a building.

Then, there are the schools

Another rift has emerged over whether schools remain unsafe.

Seven downtown schools were relocated after Sept. 11, and students have been

returning on a staggered schedule after their schools are cleaned and

declared safe. Two reopened Monday.

Students at Stuyvesant High School, one of the city's premier high schools,

located a few blocks from Ground Zero, went back in October. Some parents

say their children have suffered from rashes, nosebleeds and other health

problems since returning.

The barge where debris from Ground Zero is being toted each day sits in the

Hudson River next to the school, and that continually exposes the students

to toxins, parents and environmental activists say.

Pacifico noticed that his 17-year-old daughter has not been well

since returning to Stuyvesant. Since she was a freshman, she had missed

about three school days a year. But since October, she has been out six

days, sick with a sore throat or headache.

''Basically, they moved the World Trade Center debris right behind the

school,'' says Pacifico, who is a physician.

School board officials say the downtown schools now have thicker ventilation

filters. The indoor and outdoor air quality is tested daily.

Nevertheless, school board spokeswoman Catie Marshall concedes that such

precautions may not be enough.

''It's easy to test air and find the air contains nothing hazardous,'' she

says. ''It's harder to convey that message to people who are nervous.''

owns an apartment in Tribeca, near the Trade Center site, and

lives there with her 2-year-old twins. They moved away briefly after Sept.

11.

Now, she says, the air has largely cleared, though questions remain.

''It's home,'' says. ''And in such unsettling times, there's

comfort in being home, even if home is close to Ground Zero.

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