Most WTC Air Tests Don't Show Danger

Sept. 13, 2001 — -- Despite fires and a pungent odor at the wreckage of the World Trade Center, most tests for contaminants in New York's air have not triggered alarm, health officials say.

A U.S. Environmental Protection Agency spokeswoman said Wednesday that EPA officials "really don't detect any real danger" in air and dust tests. And New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani echoed the sentiments this morning.

"The Health Department has done tests and at this pointit is not a concern," Giuliani said. "So far, all the tests we have done do not show undue amounts of asbestos or any particular chemical agent that you have to be concerned about."

Still, he said, people in lower Manhattan were feeling the effects of all the dust and debris spawned by the terrorist attack.

"The accumulation of it, for people that are down there, can become very, very irritating," he added. "And there were alot of people whose eyes have been burning, but I don't think there isany chemical agent we have to worry about at this point."

The EPA continues to test air and dust around the attack site. Results released today on samples collected Wednesday showed little or no asbestos in dust at the site or in air downwind of the attack, an EPA official said.

Pre-attack newspaper reports and other published sources indicate that part of the World Trade Center's steel structure was coated with asbestos to prevent fire damage, a common practice that was changing just at the time the towers were built in the early 1970s.

"It's very, very important to put this into perspective," said Bonnie Bellows, an EPA spokeswoman. "We expect to find some asbestos in a building of this generation."

Analysis of earlier air samples taken downwind of the attack site in Brooklyn on Tuesday also showed lead, asbestos and volatile organic compounds to be undetectable or at low levels of concern. The air samples showed 0.0048 fibers of asbestos per cubic centimeter, below the level of 0.1 fibers per cubic centimeter Occupational Safety and Health Administration standard for airborne exposure in office buildings, according to the EPA.