Peer Review

World Trade Center Peer Review

World Trade Center Peer Review Meeting scheduled for October 21-22, 2002. You
may register to attend the meeting, find logistics information, panel member information and links to the document and references below.

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 59^th 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.

A meeting of the peer review panel for the document, called “Indoor Air Assessment: Selecting Contaminants of Potential Concern and Setting Health-Based Benchmarks,” is scheduled to be held on October 21-22, 2002 in New York City. At the meeting, independent expert scientists sitting on the peer review panel will discuss and provide their opinions regarding the scientific basis for the conclusions and recommendations made in this document. The public is welcome to observe this meeting and provide technical comments about the document. However, the meeting is not intended as a general public meeting on EPA’s cleanup program.

Questions regarding this peer review can be directed to Ms. Joan Dollarhide of TERA, at 502-857-2707.

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Last updated: 09/26/2002