[http://www.nycosh.org/Response_to_NYCDOH.html]
NYCOSH Feb. 8 response
to NYC Department of Health press release on lower Manhattan
air
Statement by
Joel Shufro, Executive Director of the New York Committee for
Occupational Safety and Health in response to "NYC Department
of Health Presents Findings from Indoor Air Sampling in Lower
Manhattan," released at 4:00 p.m. on Friday, February 8.
We find it extremely disturbing that the Department of Health
has published such an uninformative and confusing report that
raises more questions than it answers. The people of New York
City have an urgent need for useful and accurate information,
not obfuscating and baseless reassurances.
The report literally raises more
questions than it answers:
- Were the indoor air and dust
samples taken in areas that had already been cleaned up?
- Were the indoor air samples
taken under aggressive sampling conditions?
- What method was used to obtain
the samples?
- What method was used to analyze
the samples?
- What, specifically, were the
results of the tests?
- What is an "elevated level
of asbestos"?
- Were samples taken in any heavily
contaminated buildings?
- Why, more than a month after
the last samples were taken, are the results of the air samples
for fiberglass not available?
- How many dust samples were taken,
and how many contained asbestos, and how much asbestos did each
of them contain?
- What does "low levels of
asbestos in some samples" mean, specifically? What levels,
in how many samples?
- Is the Department of Health
aware of any safe level of exposure to asbestos? If so, what
is it?
- Why are residents being advised
to clean up dust when "some" of the dust contains low
levels of asbestos?
- Why does the report contain
no information about or advice concerning respiratory protection?
In fact, the Department of Health
release makes it clear that some of the tested dust contains
asbestos, which confirms the EPA recommendation that workers
and residents in lower Manhattan should assume that untested
dust contains asbestos.
According to the EPA tests, more than three-quarters of the dust
samples contain some asbestos. Thirty-four percent of the EPA
samples contain between 1.1 and 4.49 percent asbestos.
Under city law and state law,
it is illegal for anyone who does not have an asbestos handler's
license to clean up any significant quantity of dust that is
more than 1 percent asbestos. The Department of Health is inviting
New Yorkers to put themselves at potentially grave risk, when
it advises workers and residents how to clean up untested dust
themselves.
No one who is not properly trained,
equipped and licensed should clean up untested dust that could
be contaminated with asbestos. But if an untrained, unlicenced
person does clean up untested dust that could contain asbestos,
they should wear appropriate (HEPA) respiratory protection to
minimize their exposure.
The Department of Health report
states that "the likelihood of developing disease from limited,
short-term, low level exposure [to asbestos] is low." It
is true that the likelihood of developing disease is lower from
low-level exposure than it is from high-level exposure, but without
any accurate data about exposure levels, it is impossible to
characterize the level of risk.
More than 25 years ago the U.S.
Congress wrote this finding of fact into the Asbestos
School Hazard Detection and Control Act, and nothing has
been learned since to contradict it: "Medical science has
not established any minimum level of exposure to asbestos fibers
which is considered to be safe to individuals exposed to the
fibers."
We urge anyone who is considering
cleaning up a residence or a workplace, and anyone who is in
a residence or a workplace that has not been cleaned up by a
licensed asbestos abatement contractor, to follow the instructions
and advice in our factsheet, Cleaning
Up Indoor Dust and Debris in the World Trade Center Area.
For more information, contact
NYCOSH at 212-627-3900. Fax: 212-627-9812. E-mail: wtc@nycosh.org
This page was last
updated on February 9, 2002.