NYCOSH's 9/11-related work is conducted in partnership with the United Church of Christ's National Disaster Ministries, with additional support from the September 11th Fund created by the United Way of New York City and the New York Community Trust.

In addition, some more recent links will be found on the NYCOSH home page.

Where possible, these links are grouped by subject, such as Compensation or Asbestos, with non-specific links categorized as News or Occupational Safety and Health Resources. Within each subject, the newest listings are at the top.

NYCOSH cannot guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information in the external links below.

• Asbestos
  
  
• Breaking news
  
  
• Compensation
  
  
• Government resources
  
  
• News features
  
  
• Occupational safety and health resources
  
  
• Psychological trauma

For links concerning biological weapons (including anthrax) and biosafety, click here.

Occupational and environmental safety and health hazards have an effect on everyone, going far beyond the concerns resulting from the World Trade Center catastrophe or bioterrorism. For more information on the identification, control and elimination of workplace and workplace-related hazards, and to learn more about the struggle to ensure that every workplace is safe and healthful, please explore the our extensive website and its 2000 links to other Internet resources on the subject. To visit our site map, please click here.

Asbestos

• Fire Dept. Not Coming Clean on Asbestos Risk? — The Staten Island fire company hit hardest on Sept. 11 may be riding a contaminated truck. Contrary to Fire Department findings, asbestos was detected in the Rescue Co. 5 truck in testing done after Sept. 11, a report obtained by the Advance has revealed. The front and rear cabins of the specialized rig -- which returned from the World Trade Center without the 11 firefighters who rode it to Manhattan immediately after the terrorist attacks -- carried asbestos in a compartment near an air-conditioner pipe, and in a right-seat radio section, according to a March 7 study by the LEW Corporation, an environmental company based in Livingston, N.J. (Staten Island Advance, August 27)
  
  
• Asbestos: Alarmingly High Levels — Bobby Stanlewicz’s exposure to disease-causing chemicals didn’t end when he left Ground Zero. The 35-year-old firefighter—who is suffering from respiratory disease—has learned that he’s spent the past year working in a contaminated truck. (Newsweek, August 12)

For links to more news articles concerning the health effects of exposure to asbestos, click here.

For links material published before August 1, 2002, click here

Breaking news

• EPA Report Buries a Revelation — Emission of dioxins in and around Ground Zero in the two months following the World Trade Center collapse were "likely the highest ambient concentrations that have ever been reported," according to a report released last week by the federal Environmental Protection Agency. This revelation is buried on page 77 of a 160-page report that the agency released last week. (Daily News, December 31)
  
  
• Ground Zero Residents Protest Cleanup Deadline — Lower Manhattan residents protested outside the offices of the Environmental Protection Agency Friday, demanding more time to register for a program to have their homes cleaned of toxins from the World Trade Center collapse. Cable News Network, December 29)
  
  
• 9/11 Dust Seen as Less Toxic Than Feared — The soot in the air of Lower Manhattan in the first few days after the Sept. 11 attack was less likely to cause cancer and other long-term health problems than many had feared, according to a report released yesterday. (New York Times, December 24)  Also see the journal article that the Times report describes, "Persistent Organic Pollutants in the Dusts That Settled across Lower Manhattan after September 11, 2001"
  
  
• WTC Med Care Going to Dogs — World Trade Center rescue dogs are getting better, more expensive and longer-term medical monitoring than World Trade Center rescue people. (Daily News, December 22)
  
  
• WTC Study: Workers Still Gasping for Air: Half of Screened Rescuers Suffer Ailments — There are nights since Sept. 11, 2001, says Peg Nolan, that her husband wakes up from a deep sleep, jumps off the side of the bed and gasps for breath. In the 23 years they have been married, she has never heard him snore so loudly. And then there are the unexplained fits of sneezing, the sinus congestion and a cough that never seems to go away. Steve Nolan, 54, a seasoned crane operator who, like so many, was moved to spend night and day at Ground Zero doing rescue and cleanup work, tries not to worry about his long-term health. (Daily News, December 15)
  
  
• EPA Cleanup Leaves Woman in the Dust — From the windows of Ilona Kloupte's condominium apartment in Battery Park City, you can see the spot a few blocks away where the twin towers once stood. Some books and computer disks, all covered with a thin film of gray dust, lay on a desk yesterday in a spare bedroom. (Daily News, November 21)
  
  
• Ground Zero Air More Hazardous Than EPA Admits, Study Says — When a team of university-based air pollution scientists reported in February they had found dangerous airborne contaminants drifting over a then-massive World Trade Center rubble pile, the news made some folks at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency uneasy. (Salt Lake Tribune, November 10)
  
  
• EPA's 9/11 Cleanup Needs a Fresh Look — More than a year later, the debate continues over the long-term dangers of toxic chemicals released after the World Trade Center attacks. Last week, the federal Environmental Protection Agency announced that only three of 255 homes tested so far in lower Manhattan have shown dangerous levels of asbestos contamination. Those results are from a new EPA program launched during the summer to either test, or clean and test, any apartment below Canal St. at the request of people who live in the area. EPA officials estimate that up to 20,000 apartments may eventually be tested or cleaned, and they warn it is too early to draw conclusions from so small a sample. Agency brass, however, were clearly pleased about the early results. But on the very day the EPA released the positive news, an independent panel of environmental scientists raised serious questions about the standards the agency is using for its indoor cleanup program. (Daily News, October 29, 2002)
  
  
• NYCOSH and Union Coalition Press EPA for Expanded Manhattan Cleanup — When EPA reversed itself and announced that it would take responsibility for cleaning up Lower Manhattan residences that had been contaminated with fall-out from the World Trade Center, many unions and safety and health activists were critical of the plan's failure to cover workplaces and its lack of protections for the workers who would perform the cleanup. Many unions expressed dissatisfaction with the EPA plan, prompting NYCOSH to call a meeting of the unions whose members would be affected by the cleanup. At an organizing meeting in June, which was attended by representatives of a dozen unions and NYCOSH, the group raised many criticisms of the EPA plan, and agreed to focus on pressing EPA to extend the scope of the cleanup to include workplaces (the EPA plan is restricted to residences) and to require that the cleanup be conducted in a manner that would protect the cleanup workers and bystanders from the hazardous materials being cleaned up. (NYCOSH Update on Safety and Health, October 28, 2002)
  
  
• EPA Lower Manhattan Cleanup Is Sharply Criticized — This week the EPA made public its first progress report on its long-delayed program to test and clean residences in Lower Manhattan that may be contaminated with toxic fallout from the collapsed World Trade Center. The announcement was met with sharp criticism from environmental and occupational health activists, residents, and the member of Congress who represents Lower Manhattan. (NYCOSH Update on Safety and Health, October 28, 2002)
  
  
• EPA Releases Asbestos Results — Three of 255 apartments fouled by potentially toxic dust from the collapse of the Twin Towers showed elevated levels of asbestos in testing since August, federal officials said yesterday. (Newsday, October 23, 2002)
  
  
• EPA Downtown Data Doesn't Tell the Whole Story — Dismissing newly released indoor environmental test results downtown by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as "incomplete, unsubstantiated, and illusionary," Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) today called on the EPA to begin to deal straight with the residents of New York. (Office of Jerrold Nadler press release, October 22, 2002)
  
  
• Under the Plume: September 11 Produced a New Kind of Pollution, and No One Knows What to Do About It — A year later, scientists and physicians in New York City are still trying to figure out just what tens of thousands of New Yorkers inhaled that fateful day. Nonetheless, since the first weeks after the attacks, Christie Whitman, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, has been telling the nation that there is nothing to worry about. (The American Prospect, October 21, 2002)
  
  
• World Trade Center Peer Review — Since September 11, 2001, the outdoor environment around the World Trade Center (WTC) site and nearby areas have been extensively monitored by a group of federal, state and local agencies. Now that outdoor recovery efforts have come to an end, health and environmental agencies are focusing on the indoor environment. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is offering to clean and test or just test any residence south of Canal, Allen and Pike Streets in lower Manhattan. EPA is also conducting a confirmatory “pilot” cleaning program in an uncleaned/unoccupied building at 110 Liberty to evaluate the effectiveness of various cleaning methods and is conducting a study of homes North of 59th Street to determine pollution levels in New York City prior to 9/11. As part of these efforts, a Contaminants of Potential Concern (COPC) Committee of the World Trade Center Indoor Air Taskforce Working Group, has developed a document with a list of pollutants that could be of concern in the indoor environment in lower Manhattan. This list also includes health-based benchmarks or clearance levels for these contaminants. This working group includes members from EPA, New York City Department of Health, Agency for Toxic Substances Disease Registry, New York State Department of Health and Occupational Safety and Health Administration. To insure that the document is based on the best scientific information and judgments, the U.S. EPA has requested that the non-profit research organization, Toxicology Excellence for Risk Assessment (TERA), conduct an independent scientific peer review.
  
  
• Fields Calls for Outreach on Residential Cleanup: Survey of Lower Manhattan Residents Finds No Confidence in EPA — With the deadline extended to December 28, 2002 for residential cleanup in Lower Manhattan, Borough President C. Virginia Fields praised the Environmental Protection Agency for the extension and said now is the time to do a better job getting the word out about the program to increase participation. After an extensive survey of residents in Lower Manhattan, Fields asked EPA Director Christie Todd Whitman for a meeting to address the lack of confidence residents have shown in the cleanup effort after 9/11.
  
  The survey of more than 700 residents conducted by the Borough President's office found that 75% thought the air contained toxins. In interviews with the residents, they expressed extreme dissatisfaction with the EPA cleanup effort and complained about the difficulty obtaining information or signing up for the free cleanup offered by the EPA.
  
  "The federal government has either failed to adequately clean the area or they have failed to communicate their process to the residents," said Fields. "Either way, the federal government has not done enough to make residents feel they are safe in their own homes. With the deadline extended, we must now work to make sure residents are getting the information they need."
  
  In a letter to EPA Director Christine Todd Whitman, Fields wrote," much more remains to be done, especially to restore Lower Manhattan constituents' trust and confidence in government." Fields said residents surveyed showed a profound "lack of trust in EPA's assertions about air quality and frustration with the voluntary clean-up program."
  
  Their frustrations range from the lack of systematic interior cleanup, which residents believe will result from the voluntary nature of the program, to the difficulty and delay encountered by those who request cleanup. Additional issues include lack of access to accurate information, fear that construction will begin before the cleanup is complete and the need for building managers to apply for common areas in the building to be cleaned. Some have requested clean up and not heard back from the EPA.
  
  Of the approximately 30,000 apartments in Lower Manhattan only 4,000 have requested cleanup. "Our survey of residents has shown considerable confusion about this program and a profound lack of confidence with the EPA. Clearly, a better job can be done with this," Fields concluded. (Borough president's press release, October 2, 2002)
  
  
• Assessing the Scope of WTC Ailments: Experts study how lung ills may worsen — A year after the World Trade Center's collapse, doctors have just begun to get a grasp of the scope - and persistence - of respiratory disorders left in the disaster's wake. Many have even begun to wonder whether more serious illnesses, such as heart disease and cancer, await. In addition to asthma, a new condition called World Trade Center cough and another relatively new medical disorder known as reactive airways dysfunction syndrome - RADS - are the ailments most commonly treated in firefighters, police officers and others who responded to or lived near the site. RADS is a type of occupational asthma, a wheezing condition that occurs usually after exposure to high concentrations of environmental irritants. It can evolve into full-blown episodes of asthma, studies have shown. (Newsday, October 1, 2002)
  
  
• 9/11 RECOVERY WORKERS: They Were There for Us, Will We Be There for Them? New Studies Detail Health Impacts of 9/11 on Rescue Workers, NY Reps. Urge $90 Million In Federal Aid for Medical Monitoring System — Fourteen members of New York's Congressional delegation in the House urged President Bush September 30, 2002, to support a medical program for the comprehensive monitoring of 9/11 workers' medical needs caused by toxins from World Trade Center destruction. The program, to be managed through the Mt. Sinai Center for Occupational & Environmental Medicine, could be established with a $90 million federal grant. Now, recent studies reported by the Center for Disease Control (http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr) and the New England Journal of Medicine (http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/short/347/11/806) detail a much higher incidence of debilitating throat and lung disorders and bronchial afflictions, and other related illnesses, in those who worked at ground zero during recovery. Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, who initiated the letter to the President and other efforts for the funds, said, "The least we can do for the 30,000 police, fire, construction workers and volunteers who put their lives on the line to help others is to assure that their medical needs are met. I can't imagine that the President would agree with his budget director Mitch Daniels that this program isn't necessary; it seems more of a need to meet with the President directly on this and get his support for this much-needed program."
  
  
• City Struggles to Contend with Widespread WTC Cough — Physicians in the city have made it clear: The malady now officially called World Trade Center cough is like nothing they've ever seen, and hundreds - perhaps thousands - of people are experiencing it. The extent of this lung disease is not known, and for a combination of bureaucratic reasons, the extent of the human health impact may be understated. Moreover, cleanup efforts may be inappropriately focused on a single element of the debris: asbestos. (First of two stories. Newsday, September 30, 2002)
  
  
• Congressman: OSHA's 9/11 Response Endangered Workers — In the face of mounting evidence of long-term illness among those who did rescue and recovery work at the former World Trade Center (WTC), the congressman representing Lower Manhattan has criticized the response of OSHA and EPA to last year's terrorist attacks. (OccupationalHazards.com, September 30, 2002)
  
  
• Tracking the Health of Firefighters — Estimating that 700 firefighters may be permanently disabled, Fire Department medical chief Dr. Kerry Kelly yesterday urged approval of federal funding for long-term health tracking of firefighters suffering from Sept. 11-related illnesses. "What we are looking to do is monitor these people beyond retirement on the premise that they have been in a war," said Dr. Kelly, testifying before the Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works. (Staten Island Advance, September 25, 2002)
  
  
• 'Toxic soup' at Ground Zero? — The rubble of what was once a center for international commerce has been cleared away. But the collapsed Twin Towers have had a significant impact on the health of those who live near and volunteer at what native New Yorkers call 'the site.'  "When the towers came down, all that's toxic in there -- when crushed and burned -- is very deadly," said Florence Coppola of United Church of Christ (UCC) National Disaster Ministries. "When all of the different items came together, there's no way to know what they formed. It's beyond asbestos, there's mercury and unknown chemicals." (Disaster News Network, September 14, 2002)
  
  
• Impact of September 11 Attacks on Workers in the Vicinity of the World Trade Center — The Centers for Disease Control conducted surveys of workers at four workplaces in New York City. Some 4-6 months after the September 11 terrorist attacks, workers surveyed near the WTC site had substantial rates of irritative, respiratory, and mental health symptoms and lost work time, compared with similar workers surveyed >5 miles from the WTC site. These findings indicate how the impact of the WTC attacks extended beyond the WTC site to affect the health of persons working nearby. (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, September 11, 2002)
  
  
• Use of Respiratory Protection Among Responders at the World Trade Center Site — Adequate planning, preparation, and training are key to protecting the safety and health of emergency responders. Anticipating the nature and magnitude of exposures during the initial stages of a disaster situation is difficult; however, plans should be in place to provide a rapid emergency response and protect the health of the responders. The findings in this report indicate that many firefighters responding to the WTC disaster were not protected adequately during the initial stages of the emergency response. (Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, September 11, 2002)
  
  
• A Big Victim Is Still Empty After a Year — Only the magnitude of disaster a few yards away could have eclipsed the painful story of the former Federal Office Building at 90 Church Street. This imposing one-million-square-foot Art Deco structure was handsomely renovated in the late 1990's by Boston Properties, which holds the master lease. Until Sept. 11, it housed nearly 3,000 employees of the United States Postal Service, the New York City Housing Authority and the Legal Aid Society. Today, it is empty and sealed off. No one knows when it will reopen. Though it looks undamaged to passers-by, the building was permeated by contaminants, including lead, mercury and asbestos, from the collapse of 7 World Trade Center and the twin towers. (New York Times, September 11, 2002)
  
  
• Health Woes Follow 9/11 Cleanup Crew — DAYTON, Ohio - Hardly anyone was sneezing or coughing. To doctors Tim Manuel and Randy Marriott, medical directors of the Ohio Task Force One unit at the World Trade Center rubble last September, that silence was ominous. "It told me the dust all around us was probably very fine particles that were going deep into the lungs," said Marriott, a Miami Valley Hospital emergency physician who also teaches with Manuel at Wright State University's School of Medicine. (Dayton Daily News, September 10)
  
  
• Lessons from September 11th: Health Concerns from Ground Zero Illustrate Need for Nationwide Health Tracking — The heroic actions of firefighters and other emergency workers in the aftermath of September 11th won the nation's admiration and respect. But the destruction of the World Trade Center exposed those workers and local residents to contaminants that could have a lasting impact on their health. Many people in the region fear their health has been, or will be, impacted as a result of this catastrophe. (Physicians for Social Responsibility factsheet, September 10)
  
  
• Lung Ailments May Force 500 Firefighters Off Job — As many as 500 New York City firefighters may have to retire early as a result of "respiratory disability," chronic breathing problems caused by their exposure to dense clouds of dust, smoke and fumes at the World Trade Center, health officials said yesterday. (New York Times, September 10)
  
  
• Dusting off Manhattan: A year after 9/11, worries about toxic dust plague residents — 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. (MSNBC, September 9)
  
  
• The Air Down There: A year after the attacks, concerns linger over the long-term health effects on residents and rescue workers who breathed in contaminated air One Year Later —When the World Trade Center exploded in a cloud of dust and fire last year, LaVerna Bradley, 71, watched in horror from her apartment on Madison Street, just ten blocks away. But within minutes, she—along with her husband, Arthur, who suffers from Parkinson's disease and has difficulty walking—were unable to see much of anything. A cloud of thick, gray dust blew through their open windows before Arthur was able to close them. LaVerna, who was bedridden after having minor surgery the day before, was too weak to get up or prevent the contaminated dust from overtaking the apartment. A fine powder quickly coated everything in their home, including the kitchen counter, the velvet sofa, and the bed the couple had bought when they got married in 1984.  (Newsweek Web Exclusive, September 6)
  
  
• A Year of Dust, Ash and Anguish — Enter 125 Cedar Street and time rushes backward. The apartments sit largely barren, still coated in dust and ash, with no sign of the vibrant life the residents enjoyed for a quarter century at the feet of the twin towers. (New York Times, September 6)
  
  
• A Toxic Legacy Lingers as Cleanup Efforts Fall Short: High Levels of Pollutants Remain in Buildings Near the Trade Center Site — Almost a year after the World Trade Center's collapse shrouded New York in inches of ash and debris, residents are still finding dust containing surprisingly high levels of asbestos, lead and mercury in their homes, offices and schools. A toxic cocktail containing many times the legal maximum levels of cancer-causing agents lingers everywhere. It is embedded in school carpets, settled in office air vents and stuck in the crevices of firetrucks—even after extensive cleanups.  (Los Angeles Times, September 4)
  
  
• Fire Heroes' Trucks Still Tainted by WTC Dust — Firefighters are rushing to emergencies around the city in trucks still carrying remnants of toxic World Trade Center dust and debris nearly a year after the Sept. 11 attacks, The Post has learned. Of the 122 firetrucks involved in rescue and recovery efforts at Ground Zero, 93 have yet to be totally cleared of asbestos, Fiberglas, lead and other contaminants, FDNY officials have confirmed and lab reports show. But those trucks went back into use months ago. (New York Post, August 25)
  
  
• Health Assessment Finds World Trade Center Clean-up Workers Suffering from Acute Respiratory Problems — Many workers who cleared debris from the site of the World Trade Center attack of September 11 reported acute respiratory symptoms, according to a health assessment conducted by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health . The investigators believe the respiratory problems may be associated with exposure to dust and airborne contaminants at "Ground Zero." Since the investigators only looked at short-term health effects, they said more research is needed to determine if there is any long-term health risk to the workers. The assessment was conducted in collaboration with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the findings were presented on August 22 at a meeting for members of Teamsters Local 282 in Lake Success, N.Y. (Johns Hopkins press release, August 23)
  
  
• Do Lower Manhattan Cleanup Right — Next month, the Environmental Protection Agency will finally begin cleaning hundreds of apartments in lower Manhattan.  It's a shame that the agency isn't going to do it right.  The EPA's aim, of course, is to rid these apartments of the asbestos and other toxic materials thrown into the air by the collapse of the twin towers and the fires that burned for four months afterward.  When the EPA announced in June that it would do this, it was reversing the position it held ever since Sept. 11. For eight long months, the EPA insisted no cleanup was necessary. Then, when at last it agreed that, okay, maybe one was, it said the cleanup was "to reduce the safety concerns of residents." As if the release of hundreds of tons of asbestos, fiberglass, lead, highly alkaline concrete dust and many other toxic substances wasn't a real public health hazard, just the concern of some worrywarts. (New York Daily News, August 23)
  
  
• Little Scrutiny for Brooklyn - Where Attack's Toxic Smoke Drifted — They call it World Trade Center Cough - the hacking, wheezing, horrible cough that heaves the chests of many who inhaled Ground Zero air after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Scientists and health officials have studied the cough and scoured some neighborhoods of New York City for victims of inhaled Trade Center debris. But there is a critical flaw, experts say, in all the research, Environmental Protection Agency cleanup programs and federal services related to exposure to World Trade Center debris: The efforts are concentrated on Manhattan, but, except for the area immediately around Ground Zero, the plume did not spread around the borough. It went directly to Brooklyn. (Newsday, August 23)
  
  
• Mayor Promising Better Response to Catastrophes — Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg promised August 19 to make major changes in how the New York Police and Fire Departments handle future catastrophes, including improvements in technology and basic emergency procedures. At the plan's core is an ambitious goal: a profound change in the culture of the Police and Fire Departments, two agencies with a long history of rivalry. Among the most significant technological changes is a proposal to outfit high-rise buildings throughout the city with special equipment to boost the radio signals rescuers use. In procedural changes, fire chiefs will now routinely ride in police helicopters to gauge a cataclysm from the air. And the police will stage their responses from a safe distance, preventing too many officers from rushing in too soon. These and other proposals were included in an independent consultant's two reports, whose final versions [FDNY, NYPD] were released yesterday, about the agencies' responses to the Sept. 11 attacks. (New York Times, August 20)
  
  
• EPA Extends Testing Deadline — After much criticism of a federal plan to cleanup apartments in lower Manhattan, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will extend the deadline for residents to request testing and cleanup , officials said August 16. (Newsday, August 17)
  
  
• WTC Trucks Had Wrong Dust Filters — A private contractor hired to clean up asbestos-tainted dust near Ground Zero in the days after Sept. 11 failed to use required filters on its vacuum trucks, a federal report shows. Feds discovered the lapse three weeks later and ordered the contractor, Earth Technology Inc., to go back and sweep the streets again, according to a report by the Environmental Protection Agency inspector general obtained by the Daily News. Earth Technology's contract with the EPA required the use of so-called high efficiency particulate air filters, which are capable of trapping particles so tiny they can't be seen by the human eye. They keep the particles, which ordinary vacuums wouldn't catch, from escaping the vacuum trucks and seeping back into the air. (Daily News, August 15)
  
  
• WTC Residential Dust Cleanup Program: Carpets, Upholstered Furniture and Other Fabric Surfaces Fact Sheet (EPA, August 14)
  
  
• EPA Outlines Residential Cleanup Plans for Lower Manhattan — Almost one year after the World Trade Center collapse coated much of lower Manhattan in asbestos-laced dust and debris, federal environmental officials yesterday detailed plans to clean and test up to 38,000 residences. Environmental Protection Agency officials said they agreed to the unprecedented indoor cleanup for any downtown resident who wants it mostly to calm lingering fears. The EPA and other government agencies have downplayed any health risk from the dust, saying tests have shown the asbestos did not reach hazardous levels. But critics have complained that the EPA has taken too long to initiate the cleanup and that residents and others have already been exposed to the asbestos for 11 months. They attacked the plan yesterday as inadequate. (Associated Press, August 7)

For links material published before August 1, 2002, click here.

Compensation

For links material published before August 1, 2002, click here.

Government resources

• Exposure and Human Health Evaluation of Airborne
  Pollution from the World Trade Center Disaster (EPA, October)
  
  
• WTC Residential Dust Cleanup Program: Carpets, Upholstered Furniture and Other Fabric Surfaces Fact Sheet (EPA, August 14)

For links material published before August 1, 2002, click here.

News features

• Under the Plume: September 11 Produced a New Kind of Pollution, and No One Knows What to Do About It — A year later, scientists and physicians in New York City are still trying to figure out just what tens of thousands of New Yorkers inhaled that fateful day. Nonetheless, since the first weeks after the attacks, Christie Whitman, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, has been telling the nation that there is nothing to worry about. (The American Prospect, October 21)
  
  
• Fallout: The Hidden Environmental Consequences of 9/11 — On Sept. 17, 2001, less than one week after the World Trade Center collapse, tens of thousands of office workers returned to their jobs near Ground Zero after receiving the go-ahead from federal and local safety officials. Federal and city government wanted New York and the rest of the nation, which had been virtually paralyzed in the days after the September 11 terrorist attacks, to return to normal as quickly as possible. President George W. Bush, New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and other leaders needed to show the world that the United States would not be intimidated by terrorism. There was another more pressing imperative at work, however: The longer that Wall Street and the nation's chief financial markets remained closed, the greater the likelihood of a stock meltdown and perhaps long-lasting damage to investors and the U.S. economy. To achieve a rapid return to normalcy the government needed to persuade a jittery public that it was safe for civilians to reoccupy the scores of commercial skyscrapers and residential buildings in Lower Manhattan. With uncontrolled fires still raging in the debris of the towers, with thousands of bodies still buried in the rubble, and with the trauma of the terrorist attacks still fresh in their minds, many New Yorkers were understandably reluctant to return so quickly. Nonetheless, Wall Street and much of Lower Manhattan reopened for business on September 17. (Excerpt from Fallout by Juan Gonzalez)
  
  
• Evaluation of Physical and Mental Health Symptoms Following the World Trade Center (WTC) Disaster: Borough of Manhattan Community College and York College — Interim report of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) evaluation of the workers at the Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC) and York College. Includes comparison of rates of eye, ear, nose, throat and skin irritation, respiratory symptoms and gastrointestinal symptoms as well as symptoms of depression and post traumatic stress disorder between workers at BMCC and York
  Colleges. The evaluation of BMCC and York is part of a larger evaluation we are doing of workers employed near the World Trade Center (WTC) site.    (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, August 30.)

For links material published before August 1, 2002, click here.

Occupational safety and health resources

• World Trade Center Indoor Air Assessment: Selecting
  Contaminants of Potential Concern and Setting Health-Based Benchmarks  (Environmental Protection Agency, Contaminants of Potential Concern Committee of the World Trade Center Indoor Air Taskforce Working Group)
  
  
• 9/11 Environmental Action — On television screens the world over, people watched the Twin Towers disintegrate into a fine dust which spread for miles. As the fires burned unabated, New York City residents began to realize that they and the many volunteers who had come to their aid had been exposed to an unprecedented mix of asbestos, fiberglass, lead, mercury, cadmium, dioxins, and hundreds of toxic substances that continue to endanger lives. School parents, residents, safety experts, environmentalists, labor unions, and religious and charitable organizations began to organize to protect themselves and each other, as it became all too obvious that government institutions were misleading or ignoring New Yorkers. To call attention to these health risks, many people testified at public hearings, participated in conferences, and staged demonstrations. We came to understand the geographical extent and the economic and political context of the environmental problems caused by this terrorist attack.  
  
  
• World Trade Center Worker and Volunteer Medical Screening Program — A project of the Mount Sinai-Irving J. Selikoff Center for Occupational and Environmental Medicine to screen workers and volunteers who performed rescue and recovery work, including the restoration of essential services at the World Trade Center or at the Staten Island Landfill in the wake of September 11.
  
  
• World Trade Center Peer Review — Since September 11, 2001, the outdoor environment around the World Trade Center (WTC) site and nearby areas have been extensively monitored by a group of federal, state and local agencies. Now that outdoor recovery efforts have come to an end, health and environmental agencies are focusing on the indoor environment. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is offering to clean and test or just test any residence south of Canal, Allen and Pike Streets in lower Manhattan. EPA is also conducting a confirmatory “pilot” cleaning program in an uncleaned/unoccupied building at 110 Liberty to evaluate the
  effectiveness of various cleaning methods and is conducting a study of homes North of 59th Street to determine pollution levels in New York City prior to 9/11. As part of these efforts, a Contaminants of Potential Concern (COPC) Committee of the World Trade Center Indoor Air Taskforce Working Group, has developed a document with a list of pollutants that could be of concern in the indoor environment in lower Manhattan. This list also includes health-based benchmarks or clearance levels for these contaminants. This working group includes members from EPA, New York City Department of Health, Agency for Toxic Substances Disease Registry, New York State Department of Health and Occupational Safety and Health Administration. To insure that the document is based on the best scientific information and judgments, the U.S. EPA has requested that the non-profit research organization, Toxicology Excellence for Risk Assessment (TERA), conduct an independent scientific peer review.

For links material published before August 1, 2002, click here.

Psychological trauma

• Program to Cover Psychiatric Help for 9/11 Families — The American Red Cross and the September 11th Fund said yesterday that they would underwrite the expense of extended mental health treatment for people directly affected by the terrorist attacks last year. The effort may be the most ambitious ever undertaken by charitable organizations to address the emotional needs of disaster victims. An estimated 150,000 families fall into the eligibility categories designated by the charities, which include family members of people killed in the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks; people injured on Sept. 11; rescue and recovery workers and their families; residents displaced from their homes; those evacuated from the trade center and other buildings near Ground Zero; and children in schools below Canal Street and their families. (New York Times, August 21)

For links material published before August 1, 2002, click here.