World Trade Center Clean-Up

Abstract

The attack on the World Trade Center (WTC) was an event that no one could have planned for. We watched the planes crash into the buildings on television. We stared in utter disbelief as each of the towers crumpled to the ground. As the dust cloud fell, it sealed the fate of unsuspecting rescue, recovery, and clean-up personnel rushing to the scene to do their part for their fellow citizens. The dust cloud covered everything, rescuers were quoted saying "it was a black cloud over the whole area, and you couldn't see ten feet in front of you." As the dust settled and rescue operations began a new threat emerged, the toxins left behind. The Environment Protection Agency (EPA) and a host of other government organizations stepped in, but did they do enough? We learned the press releases were edited by the White House and regulations made to protect workers were not enforced. In the end, more than an estimated forty-thousand people were subjected the hazardous materials from the WTC debris. It could have been avoided.

We all still remember where we were that morning when we heard the news. It didn't matter if you were in New York or in Oklahoma; the events of September 11, 2001 are memories we will never forget. The attack on the WTC not only cost the lives of two-thousand two-hundred and fifty-two people (Goldman, 2010) it exposed thousands of individuals to many hazardous materials from the burning and ultimately the collapse of the towers. Those caught in the dust cloud were not the only ones affected by the release of hazardous materials. Rescue, recovery, and clean-up workers, volunteers, and even nearby residents have all suffered medical problems from the effects of the hazardous materials they were exposed to. In the case of a tragic event such as 9/11, the United States government has responsibility to help and protect those individuals that came to the rescue of others, but in this case did it do enough? Was the EPA, the agency tasked with protecting the environment, at fault for exposing thousands to an unprecedented release of hazardous materials?

The media splashed the scenes of the airplanes crashing into the WTC buildings over and over. We all were glued to TVs as we watched both buildings burn and ultimately the collapse of the south tower at 9:59 A.M. and the north tower at 10:28 A.M. We stood in disbelief as our minds searched to comprehend what we were seeing. In a short span of just twenty nine minutes, two 110 story tall buildings and a vital part of New York's iconic skyline collapsed into a pile of dust and debris. Another nightmare began for those brave souls at the scene and for those that would come later to perform rescue, recovery and clean-up operations.

The dust cloud "a devastating toxic soup containing more than 2,500 contaminants" (Gates, 2006) spread thorough Lower Manhattan and as far as three miles from the WTC. The dust cloud was so thick it blocked the sunlight and cast an eerie darkness all around. New York police officer Ron Baumann stated "I looked, and I just saw this wall of black and gray coming at me". A detective with the department, John Walcott, stated "it was a black cloud over the whole area, and you couldn't see ten feet in front of you". The dust cloud was viewed by Americans and world on television with little thought to as how bad it actually was. Our thoughts and prayers were with the people in the buildings that just collapsed and those passengers on the airplanes.

The debris left behind by the collapse of both towers has been estimated to be fifteen thousand cubic tons (CNYcentral, n.d.). Inside the debris there was four-hundred tons of asbestos, ninety-thousand tons of jet fuel containing benzene, mercury from more than five-hundred thousand fluorescent lights, two-hundred thousand pounds of lead and cadmium from computers alone, and four-hundred and twenty tons of concrete containing crystal silica. Those chemic materials were further spread when the north tower collapsed. A sample taken on the 16th of September, 2001 showed that fifty percent of the debris was non-fibrous material and construction debris, forty percent glass and other fibers, nine point two percent cellulose and point eight percent asbestos. Of the materials, sixty one point five percent had a particle size of fifty three microns or larger, thirty seven percent were between ten and fifty three microns, and point four percent between two point five and ten microns, and finally one point one percent where smaller than two point five microns. (Perry, 2006) What represented one of the largest demolition and clean-up jobs in history was made possible by more than forty-thousand people that responded to the collapse (DePalma, 2006).

The rescue and recovery efforts began immediately as did the government's attempt to dispel any health concerns rescue and recovery workers might have had. On the 13th of September, 2001, then EPA administrator Christine Todd Whitman stated " There is not a reason for the general public to be concerned, it is not going to be a particular hazard" when she referred to the three to five inches of dust the covered ground zero and surrounding areas. The dust lingered in the air up to five months following the collapse of the buildings. With this press release and very little said about potential health risks due to the dust, workers did not feel they should be wearing protective masks. Later on the 16th of September, Christine Whitman went on to say "The good news continues to be that air samples we have taken have all been at levels that cause us no concern. John L. Henshaw, Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA said "Our tests show that it is safe for New Yorkers to go back to work in New York's financial district" during the same press release. Unknown to the general public at the time, the White House Council on Environmental Quality held the final word on all press releases. Original press releases by the EPA showed samples contained levels of asbestos ranging from two point one percent to three point three percent, with a view of anything over one percent being defined as asbestos-containing material. The final release after being edited by the Council on Environmental Quality read "containing small percentages of asbestos" and described those levels as "slightly above the one percent trigger for defining asbestos material." The government was more concerned with reopening Wall Street on the 17th of September than alerting the public to health concerns. This statement, "The concern raised by these samples would be for the workers at the cleanup sign and for those workers returning to