NYC Air: The Smell of Chemical Warfare in the Morning Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit [Constant smoke and highly toxic chemicals such as benzene continue to waft from the site of the World Trade Center, where the fire still burns. Added to the carcinogenic chemical soup are the diesel fumes from mammoth construction equipment that, until December, will work around the clock. The fumes are often much worse very late at night, when the smell and taste of burning metal and smoke often returns with the same intensity, subjectively, of the days right after the collapse. As with anthrax and other dangers, the government has been long on soothing reassurance, and very short on hard information for the public. It took an FOIA request to pry the data from the Environmental Protection Agency, who are now claiming that they are making the data public. Residents and workers close to the site, especially those who have children, are most concerned about the quality of the air, but the entire city is still affected by it. Headaches, sore throats, and burning eyes are the norm downtown, night after night for residents, and during the day for those working in the area. In terms of the numbers affected, this is a much more serious public health threat than anthrax, and because there is almot nothing people can do about it, the media have been utterly silent on the problem, until the EPA was forced by this FOIA request to release the data they have thus far withheld. -- NY Transfer] * The New York Times - October 26, 2001 Safety Questions Remain About Air at Ground Zero By KIRK JOHNSON Air quality in Lower Manhattan has gradually improved since the early days after the World Trade Center disaster last month, when a gritty, acrid residue of combustion and dust hung over parts of the city like a shroud. But at certain times, under certain conditions - usually for brief periods - the bad air still returns. Most health experts are not terribly alarmed about the effect of these episodes on a generally healthy population. Although many people remain concerned about the smells and dust that can make eyes and throats burn, and anxious that conflicting information has left them at risk, health experts say that because the spikes do not last long and often occur in the middle of the night when few residents or office workers are on the streets, most people need not worry. Workers at the cleanup site itself, of course, are still advised to wear respiratory protection. But the deeper questions that scientists and physicians are posing - where exactly the fouled air is coming from and what fosters its resurgence, often in the darkest hours before dawn - constitute something of a downtown mystery. The prime suspects include, logically enough, the smoke from the still-smoldering ruins, but also the many diesel vehicles operating in and around the site. The peculiarities of the weather in the city in mid-to late fall add yet another wrinkle of complexity, researchers say. "This is an unusual case," said Dr. George D. Thurston, an associate professor of environmental medicine at New York University School of Medicine, which has set up its own air monitoring device close to ground zero and alongside other monitors from the federal government and other private institutions. Currently, the monitors tracking pollution around the World Trade Center site are not able to distinguish how much of the so-called pollution particulates are being generated by the fire in the depths of the ruins, which cleanup crews have not yet reached, and the heavy diesel machinery at the surface, much of which operates around the clock. But there are hints and clues. Sulfates taken from the air samples, for instance, are probably from diesel combustion, while other components, like chlorine, could at least in part be coming from burning plastics somewhere down in the rubble, Dr. Thurston said. The fire, which has burned more or less constantly since Sept. 11, is fed by the huge compilation of buried office material and the added oxygen that becomes available when some of the ruins are removed. Regardless of the mix, he and other experts say that atmospheric conditions in late fall, which tend to keep a lid on air circulation in the city, could make nighttime air pollution worse, or at least more frequent, in coming weeks. One of the highest one-hour readings in recent weeks for fine particulate matter in the Trade Center area was recorded at 2 a.m. last Friday, for example, by a monitor at Pace University. Dr. Thurston, in particular, has argued that watching the weather forecast should become a part of the cleanup operation, and that administrators should consider suspending work at times when unfavorable air patterns emerge. Other air-quality groups, like the American Lung Association, have argued that the cleanup project itself should be made cleaner through technologies and fuels that would reduce diesel emissions. Officials at the Federal Environmental Protection Agency say the issues of particulate pollution and Lower Manhattan weather patterns are not that simple. They say that federal health standards for fine particulates have never been exceeded at any of the agency's monitors for any period averaged over 24 hours since Sept. 11, and that no health standards have been established for short-term surges because the harmful health effects of short exposures have not been proven. Some studies, though, indicate that some people with heart disease and other problems could be affected by even brief pollution spikes. And so the federal officials say they are looking into the question of the nighttime pattern raised by Dr. Thurston. And they are also considering using more sophisticated air monitoring devices in the neighborhoods around the World Trade Center site that could help distinguish particulate sources. The chief of the E.P.A.'s Air Programs Branch in New York, Raymond Werner, said that pollution generated at ground level is not the only thing that can account for elevated particulate counts. Some increases have also occurred during the recent warm days, he said, when sunlight has reacted photochemically with gases in the atmosphere to produce more particles. Meteorologists say that in general, New York's air is at its worst in the fall. The prevailing winds of summer, which tend to blow in from the Atlantic Ocean, have quieted, and the prevailing winds of winter, which bring storms from the west, have not yet begun. Another variable is that New York City is big enough to generate its own unique weather, once again often to the detriment of its air. Robert Bornstein, a professor of meteorology at San Jose State University, who has extensively studied New York City's weather patterns, said that as colder weather settles on the region, the heat generated by thousands of building furnaces creates what is called a heat island effect, which draws in colder air from areas around the city. "Pollution gets drawn toward the center," he said. * Reuters via The New York Times - October 26, 2001 Report: Toxin Levels at New York's WTC Often High By REUTERS Filed at 5:19 p.m. ET NEW YORK (Reuters) - Toxic chemicals and metals are being released from fires and rubble in the ruins of the World Trade Center at levels sometimes exceeding U.S. government safety standards, the Daily News reported on Friday. The newspaper, quoting from Environmental Protection Agency documents obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request, said benzene, chlorinated dioxins, chromium, copper, lead, polychlorinated dioxins and sulfur oxide had been found in the air and soil in lower Manhattan. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials and city officials said the article exaggerated the dangers. `We have advised from day one that the workers need to be serious about the masks and the suits and all the protective gear,'' William Muszynski, acting regional administrator for the U.S. EPA, said at a news conference. `We've also done monitoring not just at the site but also at the ... perimeters to make sure citizens can have assurance there is nothing to be overly concerned about,'' said Muszynski, who added that the EPA data were being made public. `I can assure you that from all the data collected so far our representations are that the workers need to take protection and citizens who are healthy are safe. People with respiratory issues will have to take a little extra precaution.'' The Daily News said that while much attention has been focused on possible asbestos contamination from the complex destroyed when two hijacked passenger planes slammed into the twin 110-story towers on Sept. 11, toxic chemical levels were more extensive at certain times than first believed. The New York Times reported separately on Friday that most health experts were not alarmed about the effects on residents and office workers in lower Manhattan because the spikes in toxic levels do not last long and occur in the middle of the night. But in the financial district on Friday, office workers said they were concerned about the `toxic zone'' and breathing in the gritty, acrid, smelly air daily that still hangs over them more than six weeks after the attacks. `We work in a toxic zone. So when you ask what do people think down here, they certainly don't think of gold,'' said a precious metals broker at the COMEX metals division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, a stone's throw from the wreckage. `That's all anyone is talking about,'' said the broker, who asked not to be identified. The Times said that monitors tracking pollution around the 16-acre site of the ruined towers were unable to distinguish how much pollution was caused by smoldering fires deep inside the rubble, or diesel machinery operating around the clock on the surface. Benzene, a colorless liquid that evaporates quickly and can cause leukemia, bone marrow damage and other diseases, has been found on same days to exceed federal safety standards, reported the Daily News, which received the documents via the non-profit New York Environmental Law and Justice Project. It said one example was a benzene reading taken on Oct. 3 at three spots around `ground zero'' and which measured at 42, 31 and 16 times higher than standards set by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The OSHA exposure limit for workers handling benzene is 1 part per million over an eight-hour day and the Daily News said the EPA documents showed on Oct. 3 for example, the benzene exposure at `ground zero'' was measured at 39 parts per million. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytenv-10.26.01-21:48:09-7993