A year after 9/11, worries about toxic dust plague residents

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g off Manhattan

A year after 9/11, worries about toxic dust plague residents

Angie Parlionas, left, uses a flag as a mask to protect herself against

smoke while looking at the destruction at Ground Zero on Oct. 25, 2001.

By Francesca Lyman

MSNBC CONTRIBUTOR

Sept. 9 - A year since the twin towers collapsed, spewing a million tons of

dust and ash over the city and triggering long-smoldering fires, New Yorkers

say they're finally breathing cleaner air. Even so, as schools reopen and

the city continues testing and cleaning thousands of apartments for

lingering dust, residents are voicing unsettling health concerns about the

fallout from the city's worst environmental disaster.

ON THE MORNING of Sept. 11, just after the first jetliner hit, actress Kim

Todd got a call from a friend who worked in the World Trade Center asking

for help evacuating people. Living just two blocks away, Todd rushed to his

aid. But she was caught in thick smoke and the throngs of people escaping

the building, and narrowly missed being hit by a falling piece of the

jetliner.

" Then the second tower came down, and everyone around me was dead.

And while I was taking a breath and thinking, 'I'm OK - don't move,' a

passing fireman stopped and, seeing me alive, slapped me across the face and

said, 'Run! Run for your life!' "

After intensive therapy and an easing of her " survivor's guilt, " the

loyal resident of lower Manhattan, an acting coach, is beginning to recover

psychologically. Now she worries about her physical ailments. She still

suffers from a chronic cough and headaches, like many of her neighbors who

inhaled the dust and fumes of downtown Manhattan over the course of the past

year. " But I am happy to be alive, and my doctors have helped tremendously,

even with my bills, " Todd says.

Today most New Yorkers, including clean-air advocates, say New York'

s air quality is back to normal - " at least normal for New York, " says

Louise Leavitt of the American Lung Association's state chapter.

But some anxieties remain. Downtown residents who were promised help

in getting rid of lingering ash and dust that made its way indoors through

windows, vents and ducts worry that the testing and cleanup may not be

enough. Fire trucks and cars still turn up with asbestos-tainted dust.

ONGOING CLEANUP EFFORTS

In May, the Environmental Protection Agency announced it would clean

up and test the apartments of any downtown residents who wanted it. So far,

the agency has received more than 3,100 requests for for cleaning and 900

for testing only.

The EPA hopes its efforts will allay any lingering health concerns.

" We're talking about very low, long-term health risks here, " says Bonnie

Bellow, an EPA spokeswoman, " but there's no question that some people are

more sensitive than others and that residues of asbestos could be

problematic. "

Many residents have been mistrustful of health officials because

they feel they didn't warn them enough of potential hazards early on or take

necessary steps to protect them from dust mixed with hazardous materials

such as asbestos and heavy metals.

The agency was widely criticized after EPA chief Christie Whitman

told New Yorkers that there was nothing in the air to worry about in the

weeks after the attacks.

In June, a poll by an independent health research group found that

more than half of lower Manhattan residents reported some sort of ailment.

" In an interesting twist, " wrote the Mellman Group, " the Manhattanites

expressed more concern about air quality than they did about another

terrorist attack. "

" We all have been exposed to a host of toxic chemicals, " says Todd,

adding that tests of dust in her apartment turned up everything from

asbestos to mercury to kaolin, a clay that causes skin irritation.

Many residents worry about what was in the dust they breathed or

still breathe. Cook, president of a tenants group for one of Battery

Park City's buildings, two blocks south of Ground Zero, says many tenants

wish the EPA would test indoor spaces for other contaminants besides

asbestos, since mercury, lead and other heavy metals, PCBs and dioxins have

turned up in independent tests.

Rather than protest, however, Cook says his group advocates that

tenants take advantage of what the EPA is now offering. " We hope that

letting EPA send in its certified contractors to test and clean for asbestos

will most likely take care of most other contaminants as well, " says Cook.

Nevertheless he finds it unsettling that of the five or six residents who

had themselves tested for exposure to heavy metals, all tested positive.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., an outspoken critic of the EPA's

handling of the situation, puts it more strongly. " One year later, it's

outrageous that people are still living in contaminated spaces, " says the

congressman. " People are still anguishing over the known hazards and

possible hazards of what they're breathing in their homes. "

Other critics say the EPA ought to be protecting workplaces as well.

" There are thousands of offices and stores where asbestos-tainted dust fell

and where cleanups were insufficient, " says of the New York

Committee for Occupational Safety and Health. " It still lingers in boiler

rooms, crevices and carpets. "

CONCERNS ABOUT NEARBY SCHOOL

Then there are worries over Stuyvesant High School, the center of a

heated controversy since last June, when its ductwork and ventilation system

were found to be contaminated with lead. The school, which sits across from

a site where toxic debris was loaded onto a garbage barge, also served as a

triage center for Ground Zero rescue workers.

The New York City Department of Education assured parents that the

school was thoroughly cleaned when it reopened last week, and Parents

Association President Judy is satisfied with the department's

standards. " It's better that they should get back to their old school than

worry about possible hazards, " she says. " Any problematic areas could be

sealed off and cleaned while school is in session. "

But on opening day, several dozen parents stood outside protesting

the school's handling of the issue. , parent of a 17-year-old

Stuyvesant student, wasn't planning on sending his son back until the school

could answer his lingering safety questions. He and others worried that

vents had not been retested and that carpeting and upholstery were still

contaminated with asbestos. As a result of their protest, however,

was happy that the department " agreed to remove and replace all carpeting in

the building, replace the theatrical curtain in the auditorium and continue

discussions. "

Despite the concerns, many residents say they wouldn't want to leave

downtown. " I just want to get through the anniversary, and find the fireman

that saved my life, " says Todd.

Francesca Lyman is a Seattle area-based freelance writer.