Post-9/11 Health Hazards

[Kris]

March 2, 2004

A Sampling of Apartments to Be Retested for 9/11 Ills

By ANTHONY DePALMA

Up to 20 percent of the thousands of apartments that were tested and cleaned by federal environmental officials after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center will be retested to ensure they are safe to live in, officials announced yesterday.

Responding to criticism from residents and officials of the way the federal Environmental Protection Agency handled the cleanup, a 17-member panel of scientists, environmental experts and a resident - most of them independent from the federal government - was formed to look into an issue that still disturbs many people more than two years after the attack. The panel wants to make sure that the first cleanup was done properly and that apartments have not been recontaminated by polluted air carried through ventilation systems from apartments in the same building that were never cleaned.

Once the retesting of a representative sample of the apartments is completed over the next few months, the panel will make recommendations that federal environmental officials will consider but do not have to carry out.

Besides retesting, the panel will evaluate the practice of testing for one element, asbestos, to determine whether other contaminants were present. And the panel will have up to two years to trace the path of the dust cloud created by the collapse of the twin towers through downtown streets.

Federal officials acknowledged yesterday that formation of the panel was also intended to clear the air about the E.P.A. and the way it had performed since the days right after the attacks, when officials broadly stated that the air downtown was safe to breathe.

"We want to convince people that we are on the job, on watch," said Steve Johnson, acting deputy administrator of the federal agency.

But based on the first reaction of residents and groups concerned with the quality of the air downtown, the agency has a lot of convincing to do.

"If they're not going to be testing new places outside of those already tested, there's a problem," said Sudhir Jain, a member of 9/11 Environmental Action, a group of downtown residents worried that the first cleanup skipped many contaminated neighborhoods. "I don't want to kill the panel before it even starts, but most of what the panel is concerned with is where the least of the problem is."

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, who prodded the Bush administration to investigate the safety of indoor air after a critical evaluation last August of the cleanup efforts by the office of inspector general, said she had originally asked for much broader testing of both residences and workplaces.

She said she agreed to a limited scope of work in exchange for commitments from the administration to do three things: establish an independent panel; reserve one place on the panel for a community liaison; and ensure that meetings were transparent enough "to give the public confidence in the process."

Dr. Paul Gilman, assistant administrator for research and development at the E.P.A., is the panel's chairman. He said his office was developing a plan for a sample of up to 840 of the 4,200 apartments already cleaned or tested.

Some will be selected by location, he said, and others by whether they have central ventilation and air-conditioning systems. Residents will not be able to ask that their apartments be rechecked because of the random nature of the sample.

Dr. Gilman said that he hoped to present a preliminary retesting plan at the panel's first meeting at 10 a.m. on March 31 and that he wanted to have results available by June.

To ensure openness, the panel's meetings will be held in New York and will be open to the public.

Catherine McVay Hughes, a downtown resident who was forced to leave her apartment a block from ground zero until it was cleaned, was named the community liaison. She and the 16 other panel members will not be expected to reach a consensus but will be asked to submit their own comments and recommendations.

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

[Kris]

March 11, 2004

Group Is Suing Federal Agency Over Post-9/11 Health Hazards

By ANTHONY DePALMA

The health of tens of thousands of people who live and work in Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn has been endangered by the way federal officials mishandled the environmental hazards caused by the collapse of the World Trade Center, according to a lawsuit filed yesterday in United States District Court in Manhattan.

Twelve Manhattan residents and workers sued the Environmental Protection Agency for failing to follow its own procedures to ensure the area was safe before allowing people to return.

They also accused the agency's former administrator, Christie Whitman, of displaying "a shockingly deliberate indifference to human health" when she issued reassuring statements about air quality downtown that proved to be misleading.

"As a result," according to the lawsuit, a large group of New Yorkers exposed "to hazardous substances for over two years is left with the expense of full and proper cleanup of their residences and workplaces, and is faced with potentially serious long-term health effects."

In a statement, an E.P.A. regional administrator, Jane M. Kenny, said she had not seen the lawsuit and would not comment on it.

Since the dense cloud of dust and debris billowed through Lower Manhattan on Sept. 11, 2001, contradictory statements about safety and risk have tarnished the reputation of the federal agency. Some residents fear they were deliberately misled by government officials more eager to see normalcy return to the area than to safeguard New Yorkers.

Just last week, federal officials conceded their hope that the formation of a panel of independent experts to oversee the cleanup would help restore lost confidence.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of 12 residents - workers, students and business owners - but it seeks to represent the entire class of people exposed to the hazardous dust. One of the 12, Robert Gulack of Fair Lawn, N.J., a senior lawyer with the Securities and Exchange Commission, said he developed severe respiratory problems because improperly cleaned stairways and elevators contaminated his office.

The lawsuit claims the E.P.A. had the regulatory responsibility for cleaning up indoor spaces. Initially, it delegated the task to the city, and then failed to supervise the city's inadequate response, the suit says.

A year after the attack, the federal agency agreed to take over the indoor cleanup. It implemented a voluntary program for residences in a limited area around ground zero. But the area to be cleaned excluded many apartments north of Canal Street and in Brooklyn. Offices were also excluded.

The lawsuit estimates that about 17,000 homes and many workplaces should have been tested for contamination and cleaned. It seeks the thorough testing of affected apartments and offices in Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn, the creation of a medical fund to pay for health testing of people exposed to the trade center dust, and the reimbursement of people who have paid to have their apartments and businesses cleaned.

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

[BigMac]

Downtown Express
March 14, 2004

Downtown kids show no long-term health effects from 9/11

By Dr. Michel Cohen



My young patient had been coughing for about a month and a half, and his mother was understandably concerned.

“I’m starting to wonder if it has anything to do with September 11,” she said.

Her comment got me thinking. So far, the EPA and other agencies that have been maintaining a September 11 health registry have found no major health consequences to people living near Ground Zero. Nevertheless, this month marks two and a half years since those tragic events, and many people are still wondering if proximity to ground Zero could have triggered long-term physical health issues.

Since we care for the neighborhood’s kids (4,000 patients) from our office here in the heart of Tribeca, I thought I’d share my perspective on the physical health consequences of September 11, especially on Downtown’s littlest residents.

There are a few major areas of concern. The first is respiratory: People inhaled particles – via dust, smoke, and fumes – that were potentially irritating to the airways. Second, people may have ingested such particles, leading to short-and long-term toxicity. Third, what is the effect of potentially toxic airborne substances on the fetuses of pregnant women?

The repercussions from the fumes of ongoing fires are relatively easy to assess. Asthma is a reliable indicator of airway irritation, because predisposed individuals typically develop it in response to respiratory irritants. A recent study done on asthmatic children attending a clinic in Chinatown reports that their condition was exacerbated in the year after 9/11. I have not seen this study firsthand but do question this research. It may be flawed by the fact that it was limited to one clinic and may not have accounted for factors such as living conditions which are known to play an important role in asthma. For example another recent study also reports staggering increase in the rate of asthma in Harlem which is away from Ground Zero.

Our experience with asthma is radically different. Right after the attacks, despite the emanating fumes, we were surprised to find that our office diagnosed very few asthma attacks in the winter’s unusually mild weather. Asthma is often triggered by viral respiratory illnesses such as colds, coughs, and flu’s, but thanks to good weather, all of these showed up in remarkably low numbers that year. As for long-term repercussions, we also have seen no increased incidence of asthma in our patients since September 11.

Lead is among the toxic compounds people may have inadvertently ingested as dust following the explosions and fires. Here again, in our office we have seen no increase in lead levels, and we routinely test all infants for lead at about one year of age.
Mercury exposure has also been a concern, but I’m happy to report that the few blood samples we’ve taken (at the request of concerned parents) all showed mercury levels below toxicity. Some adults have tested positive for higher blood mercury levels, but this may be caused by older silver dental fillings which release mercury into the bloodstream.

Asbestos, a very fine mineral fiber found in older buildings, can provoke lung cancer many years after being inhaled. It is impossible to measure this substance once it’s in the lungs, so I cannot report how it has affected my patients. However, the EPA has consistently monitored asbestos levels in lower Manhattan’s ambient air since September 11, and it has found no evidence of toxic levels.

Concerning the long-term effects of the explosions and their fallout on fetuses, Mount Sinai Hospital has run a study on about 200 women who were pregnant and living in lower Manhattan at the time of the event. The study, which has several statistical limitations, has found no more than a small decrease in the average birth weight.

The trend is certainly not evident in our office – we’ve seen plenty of chubby newborns delivered by mothers who were pregnant at the time of the event. We have more than 120 patients who were born six moths after 9/11. And two and a half years later, these children display no specific shared health issues.

So far, I have not seen any physical conditions affecting those kids who were living in the area on September 11, or those who were born to Downtowners a few months later. In the end, my little patient’s cough may be the same lingering, frustrating cough that we see every winter following a string of viral infections…the kind for which time and warmer weather are the best medicines.

Dr. Michel Cohen is a Tribeca pediatrician and author of “The New Basics”: A-to-Z Baby and Child Care Guide for the Modern Parent. Dr. Cohen can be reached via e-mail at his website: www.thenewbasics.com.

Copyright 2004 Community Media LLC.

[Kris]

March 26, 2004

U.S. Calls Apartment Interiors Safe After Its Post-9/11 Cleanup

By ANTHONY DePALMA

A report by the federal Environmental Protection Agency shows that the agency's efforts to clean up thousands of apartments in Lower Manhattan after the World Trade Center attack were successful in removing asbestos and other harmful materials.

But a critic of the program said the report, released yesterday, confirmed nothing more than the inadequacies of the cleanup and the need for further testing.

The report on the indoor air cleanup program showed that only a small percentage - 0.4 percent - of samples taken from cleaned apartments exceeded health standards. Asbestos in the apartments was removed with powerful vacuums. Furniture, ceilings, floors and appliances were wiped down with wet towels and mops.

After the apartments were cleaned, three to five air samples were taken in each, using transmission electron microscopy. People who lived in apartments that did not meet minimum health standards were encouraged to have their residences retested.

The apartments were also tested for lead, both before and after cleanup. The report indicated that 14 percent of the samples taken from a test group of apartments showed higher than acceptable levels of lead before they were cleaned. When they were tested again after being washed down, 3 percent were found to exceed safe limits.

Mary Mears, an agency spokeswoman, said the test results - which had already been released on the agency's Web site - show that the cleanup methods that were used had effectively decontaminated more than 4,000 apartments. But she said the report would be submitted to a new panel, which includes independent scientists and a representative of the residents of Lower Manhattan, to review its reliability.

The panel will hold its first public meeting on Wednesday. It is expected to present a plan for retesting some apartments that have already been cleaned to see whether they have been recontaminated by outside air or by the emissions from nearby apartments that were never cleaned.

Representative Jerrold L. Nadler, whose district includes Lower Manhattan, has been critical of the federal cleanup. He called the report "an attempt to justify a shoddy and legally inadequate cleaning program."

Mr. Nadler said the testing was faulty because samples were not taken from draperies, carpets and the cracks in hardwood floors where harmful elements might have settled.

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

[Kris]

March 27, 2004

Bill Would Help Thousands Exposed to 9/11 Dust Plume

By ANTHONY DePALMA

Thousands of people who live or work in Lower Manhattan and were exposed to the dust plume after the World Trade Center attack would be eligible to undergo health screening under a bill expected to be introduced in Congress on Monday.

The legislation would greatly expand an existing health monitoring program that covers New York City firefighters and about 12,000 others who responded to the attacks.

Residents, office workers and federal employees who are not now eligible would be able to undergo screening and then enter the long-term health-monitoring program.

And for the first time, money would be made available to pay for health care expenses and prescription drugs for people without health insurance.

Representative Carolyn B. Maloney, a Manhattan Democrat, is cosponsoring the bill with Christopher Shays, Republican of Stamford, Conn., who has conducted hearings on the aftermath of 9/11.

Ms. Maloney said the expanded screening was needed because so much was still not known about the health impact of the dust cloud and the hazards it contained.

"Right now, the only people coming forward are people who think they are sick," Ms. Maloney said. "The point of screening is that we don't know what is going to develop."

Questions about the health risks posed by the dust cloud have been raised since federal environmental officials said, a few days after the attacks, that the air in Lower Manhattan was safe to breathe. Officials have since conceded that this declaration had been too broad.

Efforts to set up health screening programs were at first resisted by the federal government, and money was made available only after substantial pressure from New York's Congressional delegation.

An existing program at Mount Sinai Medical Center has already screened more than 9,200 people, and thousands more are waiting to be seen. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton was instrumental in getting the federal government to establish the program and to provide $90 million to continue monitoring the health of people who have been screened.

But the release of that money was delayed for several months; it did not become available until last week.

More than 40,000 people exposed to the dust could end up being screened and monitored. The sponsors do not have an estimate of its cost.

Dr. Robin Herbert, co-director of the World Trade Center Worker and Volunteer Medical Screening Program at Mt. Sinai, said that half of those screened had shown signs of respiratory ailments.

However, with few exceptions, the screening program has not been able to provide treatment for ailing workers. Some have filed claims with the workers' compensation system, while others covered by health insurance have gone to family doctors.

For those without health insurance or union benefits, there has been almost no help, Ms. Maloney said.

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

[Kris]

April 1, 2004

Panel Is Split on Ways to Retest Air in Homes Near Ground Zero

By ANTHONY DePALMA

A panel of experts began its critical review yesterday of the federal government's cleanup of Lower Manhattan after the collapse of the World Trade Center, and immediately found itself torn between the needs of science and the health concerns of residents.

The 17-member panel, meeting publicly for the first time, released the outlines of a plan to retest 250 to 1,000 of the 4,167 apartments that were tested and cleaned by the United States Environmental Protection Agency in 2002 and 2003.

Those efforts have been widely criticized by downtown residents and public officials who have called them flawed, inadequate and deliberately misleading about the risks posed by dust from the collapse and smoke from the fires that smoldered for weeks afterward.

No sooner had the retesting proposal been made public yesterday than divisions began to appear within the panel, which consists of scientists, medical doctors and one resident of Lower Manhattan.

On one side were several scientists who insisted that any retesting follow strict guidelines to ensure that the methods are comparable to testing that was done after the initial cleanups.

The original test results showed that most apartments did not exceed standards for asbestos, which was used to indicate the presence of other pollutants.

On the other side were members who said the panel should conduct a range of tests, even if they were not done the first time, to assure residents that their apartments are safe.

"Science is not what brought us here," said Jeanne Stellman, a chemist and director of the general public health program at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. "It was community concerns."

Dr. Stellman acknowledged the value of maintaining scientific standards in the resampling, but said other issues were more important.

Time after time during the all-day hearing at the old Customs House on Bowling Green, residents, community organizers and panel members questioned the way the original cleanup had been handled by the E.P.A. And they asked what could be done to ease the concerns of thousands of people whose apartments were contaminated by the dust, which contained asbestos, lead, mercury and other hazardous elements.

One resident, Kelly E. Colangelo, testified that the work crew contracted by the E.P.A. to clean her apartment in Battery Park City did not follow accepted practices. They did not check the air-conditioner for contamination.. Nor did they run a fan to simulate normal living conditions while air samples were taken.

Kathy Callahan, the E.P.A.'s deputy regional administrator of Region 2, which includes New York, defended the cleanup, saying it was both timely and effective in removing contaminants from the apartments of those who had participated.

The initial testing of the cleaned apartments was done, she said, to "bolster the confidence that the cleaning was effective."

The federal program to clean up indoor air began in May 2002, and the voluntary enrollment period ran through the end of that year. Although there are more than 30,000 apartments in Lower Manhattan, just slightly more than 4,000 residents signed up for the program. The panel gave no estimate of how much the retesting would cost, or how long it would take. Paul Gilman, the chairman, said that he had hoped to have the results by June, but that there could be delays if the E.P.A. had trouble hiring contractors.

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

[BigMac]

Newsday
May 4, 2004

Study: WTC air was 'intensely toxic'

By Graham Rayman

The World Trade Center disaster caused the largest acute environmental disaster ever to affect New York City, generating an "intensely toxic atmospheric plume," a new study concludes.

Dust from the fire-fueled collapses of the Twin Towers contained a perilous blend: pulverized cement, glass shards from shattered windows, asbestos, lead, PCBs, a chemical in electrical equipment and florescent lights, chemicals found in roofing tar and oil, and hydrochloric acid, the study states.

Cement dust and glass fibers, which were large enough to be caught in the upper airways, caused the chronic cough and irritation reported by many people.

Dr. Phillip Landrigan, the lead author of the study, said the dust was "extremely caustic," similar to lye or drain cleaner. He said researchers are still finding tiny shards of glass in the lungs of some workers.

"Because it was so caustic, it set off a chemical reaction in the lining of the respiratory tract," he said.

In addition to causing a higher rate of respiratory ailments, like persistent cough and wheezing, an increased risk of asthma was found.

There was also an increased risk of mesothelioma, a type of lung cancer, among workers exposed to asbestos. Researchers also found a higher incidence of smaller size babies born of women women who were pregnant and in the area on Sept. 11, 2001.

The condition was similar to babies born to mothers who smoke during pregnancy, or who live in highly polluted cities, Landrigan said.

The study confirms what other private researchers have said, that health risks stemming from the disaster were more serious than government officials initially disclosed. "Environmental exposures after the WTC disaster were associated with significant effects on health," the study concluded.

"It's fair to say that the toxicity of the dust caught the people in the agencies by surprise," Landrigan said.

A consortium of research institutions was involved in the study, including Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York University School of Medicine and the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University.

Copyright 2004 Newsday, Inc.

[BigMac]

Newsday
May 14, 2004

Hillary Clinton: Thousands of ground zero workers are not getting proper health care

By VERENA DOBNIK

NEW YORK -- About 35,000 people who worked at ground zero still face health problems from the dust and debris, but government is not offering enough help to those who risked their lives for others, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton told new doctors who graduated on Friday.

The Democratic senator from New York received an honorary doctorate from Mount Sinai Medical School, where she gave the commencement speech.

"The problems associated with air quality in lower Manhattan illustrate a major flaw in our health tracking system," she told several hundred freshly hooded health professionals gathered at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, some receiving their M.D. degrees and others their Ph.D. in medical research.

On Sept. 11, 2001, the senator said, rescue workers and volunteers rushed to the collapsing World Trade Center towers, never stopping to think of the possible problems they might suffer from the dust and debris.

"Today, they continue to suffer from the health effects of that selfless act," she told the graduates.

In 2002, she said, she fought to procure the $12 million needed to establish the World Trade Center Worker and Volunteer Medical Screening Program, with the help of health professionals from Mount Sinai who also had offered their expertise in the aftermath of the terrorist attack.

That funding helped cover examinations for about 7,500 people. But the senator said there are as many as 35,000 people in all who are still at risk because of their work at ground zero, and caring for them requires more resources and funding.

The lack of a proper response to the problems of those exposed to the air in lower Manhattan reflects a flawed national health system, she said. Studies of chronic diseases such as the respiratory problems suffered by ground zero workers, or illnesses such as cancer, have not been tracked across the country so as to identify the risks and take action to prevent them.
"To deal with 21st century problems, we first need a 21st century health care system," Clinton said.

At the push of a computer button, she said, a doctor should be able to receive the latest scientific articles along with a patient's chart, or be able to prescribe a medicine and send it to the pharmacy.

"But often, while the technology exists, the systems are not in place to do these simple things," Clinton said. "The link between our environment and our health is one that we need to better understand, so that we can know the damage we do, not just to the trees in the forest, but to the children in our homes."

She asked the graduates, while they put in long hours in hospitals and labs to start their careers, to "remember to stay involved in public life and remember your civic duty. We need your voice in the dialogue."

That includes voting, said Clinton, who has added voter registration to the capabilities of her Web site.

___

On the Net:

Voter registration: http://www.friendsofhillary.com

Copyright 2004 Newsday, Inc.

[Ninjahedge]

They need to set up a service fund to take care of the people, myself included, that may develop Asbestosis from this thing in 30 years.

The Asbestos companies are already settled out for a measly ammount per person exhibiting symptoms now, earning the representative lawyers a nice fat paycheck, but that absolves them of responsibility from any other problems that might arise in the future.


I am worried about this. But who knows, maybe the wind was blowing the right way for me those nights.

[BigMac]

NY1
June 19, 2004

World Trade Center Health Registry Now Largest In U.S. History



The World Trade Center health registry has passed the 40,000 member mark, making it the largest public health registry in U.S. history.

Health officials are hoping even more people will sign up in the next 10 weeks before enrollment ends.

The registry was launched last September to try and track the long term medical and psychological effects of 9/11.

Registrants are asked to complete a 30-minute phone interview in which they are asked where they were on September 11th, how long they were in areas with smoke and fumes, and if they've had health problems since.

Copyright © 2004 NY1 News

[BigMac]

New York Post
July 18, 2004

EXCLUSIVE

Furor Over WTC 'Lies'

Robert Gulack returned to work downtown after 9/11 because federal officials said it was safe to go back. He woke up two days later choking with asthma.

Now, after a blistering memo from an Environmental Protection Agency scientist claiming the city and the EPA withheld data showing the area was actually clogged with asbestos, Gulack is fuming and demanding reparations.

"If these allegations are true, it confirms how reckless the EPA was during this period," he said. "There has to be some kind of compensation. People have been horribly hurt, including innocent children."

Gulack, 50, of Fair Lawn, N.J., a plaintiff in a class-action suit against the EPA, was joined by a chorus of lawyers, federal lawmakers and city officials scrambling to either bolster or discredit the EPA memo.

The memo, distributed within the agency Thursday and reported by The Post Friday, claims the city Department of Environmental Protection, in coordination with the EPA, withheld from the public results from 17 air tests.

"None of this is surprising," said Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-Manhattan). "I've been saying the EPA and the city are lying through their teeth about this for years."

"These are serious charges, and New Yorkers deserve a full and immediate response from the administration," said Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who recently established a review panel to look at the EPA's work post-9/11.

Attorneys representing cases brought by sick workers and residents say the allegations could have a monetary impact on their litigation.

"This could support a claim for increased punitive damages," said Jeanne Markey, an attorney in the class-action suit against the EPA.

The federal agency says the allegations raised in the memo are "unfounded and absurd."

"The agency had one goal," said spokeswoman Mary Mears, "to see if there was a pattern of consistently high levels of asbestos. EPA's public statements were based on this data, which showed relatively infrequent exceedance."

Mears also says the memo is in error claiming "overloaded" test results — many of which, the memo says, were not reported — mean the filters were so clogged with asbestos, they couldn't be read. It means, according to Mears, the filter was clogged, but not necessarily with asbestos.

The city DEP, meanwhile, admitted it did not post some data on its Web site because they were gathered prior to the establishment of 20 sites routinely tested and reported online.

It also said the agency had found two examples so far of inaccuracies in the data reported online that were consistent with the memo's accusations.

"But to say all this adds up to a grand scheme to conceal information is just false," said the DEP's Charles Sturcken. "We regularly reported exceedances. We never hid that."

Copyright 2004 NYP Holdings, Inc.

[Kris]

July 27, 2004

Study Shows Air From 9/11 Didn't Inflate Cancer Risk

By ANDREW C. REVKIN

After the World Trade Center collapsed, air samples collected nearby showed that levels of some cancer-causing chemicals had soared but had fallen so quickly that the pollution spike was unlikely to increase cancer risks in nearby communities, researchers reported yesterday.

The chemicals, called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, are often found in sooty particles generated when fire consumes anything from tobacco to jet fuel. They have been linked to lung, skin and bladder cancers as well as other health problems.

Earlier studies had estimated that between 100 and 1,000 tons of the chemicals spewed into the air after the attacks, both from the smoldering fires and from the exhausts of diesel-powered construction vehicles that flooded into the area.

But this is the first study to track trends in these chemicals in samples of the most harmful particles of sooty pollution, those smaller than 2.5 microns across.

Motes that minuscule can travel deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream. Larger particles tend to drop out of the air quickly and also are expelled from the lungs by coughing and other defenses.

The researchers found that P.A.H. concentrations in the samples captured shortly after the attacks soared to some 65 times the average levels measured in city air, and the types detected tended to be those most likely to come from a source like burning wreckage.

Within 100 days, however, those chemicals were largely gone, as were the fires. From then until spring 2002, the samples contained declining amounts of the varieties associated with diesel exhaust, the researchers said, and by May of that year returned to amounts typical for New York City air.

At least for these hydrocarbons, the duration of potential exposure was so short, compared with a typical lifetime, that "cancers from these chemicals is not something to worry about," said Dr. Stephen M. Rappaport, an author of the study and professor of environmental health at the University of North Carolina.

The study, published yesterday in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was conducted by scientists at the university and the National Exposure Research Laboratory of the Environmental Protection Agency, in Research Triangle Park, N.C. The paper can be found online at pnas.org.

Dr. Rappaport cautioned that the analysis had involved only polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and not the many other potentially harmful substances, including asbestos, that drifted in the wind after 9/11.

While cancer rates are unlikely to rise as a result of the exposure, the paper said, other effects, including harm to fetuses, could not be ruled out.

The paper also said that workers toiling in the smoldering rubble could easily have inhaled air with much higher concentrations of the hydrocarbons. The samples were collected at three sites around the perimeter of ground zero, and on the 16th floor of 290 Broadway, where Environmental Protection Agency offices are located.

But generally, according to the researchers and some pollution experts not associated with the study, the findings should provide at least a bit of relief to residents of the area, many of whom have remained worried about the effects that pollution from the disaster could have on their health.

"There should be some reassurance here for the general public," said Dr. Jonathan M. Samet, the chairman of the department of epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health. But he quickly added that cancer was only one of many health problems that could result from pollution spawned after the attacks.

Dr. Frederica P. Perera, the director of the Columbia Center for Children's Environmental Health, agreed with Dr. Samet, calling the new study "excellent," but warning that some people appear to be far more sensitive to P.A.H.'s than others, and that fetuses, particularly, can be harmed from exposure to this kind of pollution.

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

[Kris]

November 23, 2004

Thousands Near 9/11 Attack Reported Ill Effects, U.S. Says

By MARC SANTORA

More than three years after the World Trade Center was destroyed, city health officials released data yesterday from a two-year study showing that thousands of people in the vicinity of the towers on Sept. 11, 2001, said they had increased respiratory problems and suffered higher rates of emotional distress.

The findings are the result of interviews with 61,087 people who could have been directly affected by the terrorist attack, all of whom volunteered to be part of the World Trade Center Health Registry.

"We now know that tens of thousands of registry enrollees reported significant respiratory and mental health symptoms," said Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, commissioner of the City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

Dr. Frieden said the registry, the largest of its kind ever attempted in the United States, would eventually help to assess the attack's long-term effect on health and could facilitate treatment in the areas where it is most needed.

Health officials do not know whether registry members continue to suffer from the respiratory symptoms they described because they were asked only about their experiences around the time of the attack. Therefore, there is still no solid understanding of the severity of the problems many people face.

Dr. Frieden said that each of the registry members would continue to be monitored over the next two decades, during which time health officials hope to interview them periodically and to be able to use new information to identify trends and patterns of illness.

None of the registry members received medical examinations as part of the survey, and there is no federal treatment program currently available for those who may be ill.

In fact, financing for treatment, as well as the federal government's initial reaction to possible air quality problems around ground zero, have been heatedly debated since the Environmental Protection Agency announced soon after the attack that it was safe to return to the area.

Since that time, there has been a growing consensus that many people may have grown ill because of a toxic mix of dust, debris, smoke and chemicals that was released into the air. However, there is still no definitive knowledge of what was in the dust, how long it posed a risk and how many people were sickened.

Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta, who joined Dr. Frieden and other officials at a news conference yesterday, said firefighters were among the first to experience respiratory problems, but many have gotten better with time, he noted.

Dr. Frieden, who joined the health department in 2002, presented no conclusions about the response of the federal government in the immediate aftermath of the attack, saying the full effect of the air quality would take years to study.

However, he did say that more financing was needed to maintain the registry and to provide treatment. The registry alone costs more than $1 million a year to maintain.

A study by the Government Accountability Office said anywhere from 250,000 to 400,000 people could have been affected by the dust and debris.

While New Yorkers make up the largest portion of those surveyed, 47,230, the rest of the people in the registry represent all 50 states plus Puerto Rico and nine foreign countries.

In order to qualify for the registry, a person had to meet one of the following criteria on 9/11: living south of Canal Street; being inside one of the towers or on the subway south of Chambers Street; being involved in rescue or cleanup; or being an enrollee or staff member at a school or day care center south of Canal Street.

Nearly half of those interviewed, 42 percent, said they had experienced problems with shortness of breath. Even more people, 47 percent, said they had sinus problems. Other common respiratory complaints included wheezing, 38 percent; a persistent cough, 37 percent; and throat irritation, 38 percent.

Another area of focus was on mental health; 8 percent of registry members reported symptoms of psychological distress, 60 percent higher than the city average of 5 percent.

Dr. Frieden said he was aware of the widespread skepticism about government announcements having anything to do with air quality at ground zero, which was part of the reason they were making the data public. "We are committed to transparency," he said.

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

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Insurance Superintendent Concerned About WTC Insurance Funds

NY1
July 30, 2006

The state wants to know what's going on with a billion dollars intended for claims by workers who helped in the rescue and recovery effort at the World Trade Center site.

According to the New York Post, the state's insurance superintendent sent a letter to the city controlled-WTC Captive Insurance Company asking why no claims have been paid, while millions of dollars have been spent for professional services.

In the letter, Howard Mills says he's concerned the federal aid is not being used for its intended purpose.

Congressman Jerrold Nadler is reportedly asking the Department of Homeland Security to investigate. Nadler tells the paper that money from the fund is being used to dispute claims rather than pay them.

A spokesman for the insurance company tells the Post the company has faithfully followed its mandate to insure the city and its contractors.

Copyright © 2006 NY1 News