The New York City Council Committee of Environmental Protection invited NYCOSH to deliver testimony concerning the ongoing hazards created by the WTC collapse.

My name is David Newman. I am an industrial hygienist on the staff of the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health (NYCOSH), a non-profit coalition of 250 local unions and 400 healthcare and legal professionals, rank-and-file safety and health activists and concerned citizens in the New York metropolitan area. I am presenting the testimony of Joel Shufro, the Executive Director of NYCOSH.

NYCOSH has a 20-year history of providing safety and health training and technical assistance about work-related hazards to workers, unions, community residents and community-based organizations. Each year, NYCOSH trains over 3,000 workers about occupational safety and health hazards, about their rights to safe and healthful workplaces under applicable city, state or federal law, and about strategies to eliminate job-related safety and health hazards. In addition, we respond to hundreds of technical assistance requests from workers, community residents and government agencies.

It has been our experience over the last twenty years that occupational exposures to toxic substances in the workplace are directly tied to environmental hazards. The toxic materials that workers are exposed to in the workplace don't always stay in the workplace but frequently wind up in our communities as well. Nowhere is this problem more evident than in the situation at the World Trade Center, where dust containing toxic substances was distributed all over lower Manhattan and blown by the wind throughout the New York metropolitan area. As the recovery work at the Trade Center proceeds, dust continues to be dispersed into the surrounding area.

It is clear that the dust released by the collapse of the World Trade Center contained significant amounts of asbestos. We know this both from historical sources and from the analysis of dust samples collected after September 11th.

The Environmental Protection Agency's data makes it clear that asbestos is a constituent of the dust. The EPA website posts data concerning 143 bulk samples of dust collected in lower Manhattan, outside the 16-acre collapse site. Asbestos was detected in 109 of the samples (76%). Of the asbestos-containing samples, 37 (34%) were between 1.1 percent asbestos and 4.49 percent asbestos.

As the EPA states, "The presence of asbestos in dust is not necessarily a significant health hazard. The dust must become airborne and be inhaled for it to cause health problems. Measurements of asbestos in the air are more accurate indicators of the potential for exposure." Most of EPA's outdoor air samples contain relatively little asbestos, but the EPA website lists at least 25 12-hour samples, taken at 10 different lower Manhattan locations, which exceed the EPA clearance standard established under the Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act (AHERA) of 70 structures per square millimeter.

While the levels of airborne asbestos are low, they are not inconsequential. Surely, the higher the dose, the greater the risk of disease, but there is no known safe exposure to asbestos. While diseases such as asbestosis result from exposure to asbestos over long periods of time, asbestos-related cancers, such as mesothelioma, which have a ten to forty year latency period, can develop from low-level exposure to this killing dust.

One set of investigators, Eric J. Chatfield and John R. Kominsky, submitted a report for the Ground Zero Coalition, a group of city, state and federal elected officials representing constituents in downtown Manhattan. Chatfield and Kominsky took air samples in several indoor locations near the World Trade Center site. The areas they sampled were heavily contaminated with asbestos containing dust. All nine samples exceeded the AHERA clearance level – sometimes by a factor of four or more. In their report, Chatfield and Kominsky note that "Because these air samples were collected under passive conditions, any disturbance of this material could increase the airborne concentrations and potentially increase exposure to asbestos."

The heaviest exposures to airborne asbestos take place in indoor settings where settled dust and debris from the collapse of the Trade Center are disturbed and made airborne again.

Consequently, we are particularly concerned about workers in the area whose job it is to clean offices and apartments where dust from the collapse of the World Trade Center has accumulated. Similarly, we believe that residents who return to their residences and engage in the clean-up activities may be exposing themselves and their families to hazardous levels of toxic substances.

Unfortunately, there is a loophole in federal, state and city asbestos regulations, which leaves these workers unprotected.

First, EPA only classifies dust as asbestos-containing material (ACM) if it contains more than 1% asbestos. In fact, the agency refers to dust with less than 1 percent asbestos as "safe." Unfortunately, the classification of dust that contains less than one percent asbestos as safe is not based on an studies of the health of people exposed to such dust. The one-percent cutoff was established decades ago to characterize the potential risk posed by the asbestos contained in solid materials, such as ceiling tiles. Working with a ceiling tile that contains 1 percent asbestos is entirely unlike working with dust that contains 1 percent asbestos. Workers can inhale a very significant amount of asbestos when cleaning up dust that contains one percent asbestos or less.

Second, according to our discussions with the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, the job of cleaning up offices and apartments, even if the dust contains more than 1% asbestos, does not trigger New York City's Asbestos Control Law. Consequently, employers are not obligated to provide workers involved in the clean-up of office buildings and/or apartments with training about the health hazards of exposure to asbestos or about the appropriate work practices for handling asbestos. Furthermore, employers are not obligated to provide appropriate personal protective equipment, facilities for decontamination or training about how to properly use such equipment.

Third, there are no standards for the clean-up of offices or apartments in which asbestos-containing materials are found.

Fourth, there is no clearance standard for re-occupancy of buildings contaminated by dust from the World Trade Center catastrophe. Consequently, workers and individuals whose residences have been contaminated by the dust resulting from the collapse have no recourse when their employer or landlord tells them that the clean-up job has been completed and that re-entry to the previously contaminated area is "safe."

Therefore, we believe that the City Council should immediately require the appropriate New York City agency to:

• require training of all workers engaged in the clean up of dust which resulted from the collapse of the World Trade Center. The training should cover the health hazards of exposure to asbestos and other toxic substances in the dust; appropriate usage of personal protective equipment and decontamination; as well as appropriate work practices. The City may want to consider requiring that work be done by workers licensed under New York City's Asbestos Control Law.
  
  
• require the appropriate city agency promulgate protocols for clean-up. At the very least, the City Department of Health, which recommends that employers and residents employ "professional cleaners," should issue best-practice protocols, so employers, workers and residents can assess the adequacy of any clean-ups and demand that cleaners adhere to appropriate work practices.
  
  
• promulgate a clearance standard for re-occupancy of buildings contaminated by dust from the World Trade Center catastrophe. We believe that it is inappropriate to use the OSHA asbestos standard as a clearance standard and suggest that the AHERA clearance standard be adopted for all residences and workplaces and public places.

Thank you for your consideration.

• Environmental concerns aired at City Council hearing - Associated Press, November 8, 2001
  
• Cleanup Worries: Residents, doctors see WTC health risks - Newsday, November 9, 2001
  
• Index of information concerning occupational safety and health concerns and the World Trade Center catastrophe.

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.