-Caveat Lector-
From
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4286370,00.html
}}}>Begin
Heroes of Ground Zero at risk from breathing toxic cocktail
Pollutants from smouldering ruins spark leukaemia fear
Michael Ellison in New York
Saturday October 27, 2001
The Guardian
Thousands of people have been breathing in carcinogenic toxins from
the smouldering ruins of the World Trade Centre, according to
internal US government reports.
On one day alone, the level of benzene, which can cause leukaemia and
bone marrow damage with prolonged exposure, was measured at 58 times
official safety levels.
On a another day, monitors found the chemical at 42, 31 and 16 times
the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's limits at three
spots around the site in lower Manhattan.
Other toxic substances detected at unsafe levels in the air and soil
around the site, which is still burning more than six weeks after the
attacks, include sulphur dioxide, dioxins, PCBs and lead, say the
documents obtained by the New York Daily News.
"Yes, they are high," said an Environmental Protection Agency spokeswoman. "But you
get a little distance from the plume and they go dramatically down."
Sulphur dioxide was found in the air at above the safety level on numerous occasions;
one day last month lead was present at three times the limit; on another, discharges
of dioxins into the Hudson river were five times h
igher than any recorded in New York harbour.
Concern had focused on asbestos, which was used in the lower of the towers' 110
storeys. Studies reveal that the amounts in the air are within agreed safety standards
but there are fears that some fibres are so small that
they may evade detection.
"What I've seen of the data is troubling," said Paul Bartlett, an expert on dioxins
and PCBs at Queens College centre for the biology of natural systems in New York.
"Their detection limits are aimed at threshold levels for occupational exposure.
"They aren't treating this as a disaster so they're not asking to what extent and how
far are people being exposed or who is possibly being affected by the release of
chemicals. They're just checking what emissions are ex
ceeding regulations."
Victims' families will be beside the site tomorrow to attend a memorial service.
Another report found that immediately after the catastrophe, few rescue workers wore
respirators, although most do now.
The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences says almost 1,000 injuries at
Ground Zero, from blisters to burns and fractures, might have been prevented if more
rescue teams had received basic training and more
had worn hardhats.
"There is no excuse for what I saw," said John Moran, the consultant who drew up the
report.
"When I was up there there was no evidence of any safety or health programme or plan.
It's the worst site I've ever seen, extremely hazardous. Very few of the workers were
wearing even the most basic protective equipment.
"
But Joel Shufro, executive director of the New York Committee on
Occupational Safety and Health, said the firefighters, police
officers, rescue and construction workers were dealing with an
unprecedented event.
"They were taking risks which, under the circumstances, were
understandable and those people need to be considered heroes," he
said. "What needs to happen now is that workers need to be protected
so they don't suffer illness or injuries.
"What we don't want to see is a second national tragedy."
Guardian Unlimited � Guardian Newspapers Limited 2001
End<{{{
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