Environmental aftermath

Our plain-English summary of Environmental aftermath, by L. Claudio (Environmental Health Perspectives, 2001).

The study

• Author: L. Claudio
• Journal: Environmental Health Perspectives
• Published: 2001;109(11):A528-36
• Cited by: 32 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher · Free full text

Summary of the article

This news feature described environmental health concerns after the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks destroyed the World Trade Center in New York City. It drew on interviews with scientists, physicians, officials and local residents, and on early monitoring results. The article noted that 5,000 tons of asbestos-containing fireproofing had been sprayed up to the fortieth floor of one tower before New York City banned asbestos spraying in May 1970. The collapse released dust and smoke that may have contained asbestos, PCBs, dioxins, lead, particulate matter and other contaminants. Nearly 20,000 people lived within a half-mile of the site, and thousands of rescue workers worked there, sometimes without respirators. All 99 EPA samples taken in and around Ground Zero between October 12 and 15 showed asbestos below 70 structures per square millimeter, the AHERA school reentry standard, although at least 27 earlier readings had exceeded it. Chest X-rays had been taken for 350 of about 4,000 firefighters as a baseline. Daily PM2.5 averages fell below the EPA level of concern, but hourly peaks, often at night, exceeded it. Lead in dust ranged from 38 to 635 micrograms per gram. Experts differed on the asbestos risk to residents. The article concluded that long-term health effects could not yet be predicted and that communicating this uncertainty to the public was a major challenge.

PubMed has no abstract for this study, and the article doesn't print one. We wrote this summary from the full article with the help of AI. It is not the authors' wording.

In plain English

This article was a news feature in the journal's Focus section, not a research study. It reported no original data. Drawing on interviews with scientists, officials and residents, it described environmental health concerns after the 11 September 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, including asbestos, particulate matter, lead and PCBs. It reported that asbestos-laden slurry had been sprayed on the towers' steel beams as a fire retardant during construction, with 5,000 tons applied up to the fortieth floor of one tower. It reported that all 99 EPA samples taken in and around Ground Zero between October 12 and October 15 showed asbestos below 70 structures per square millimeter, the AHERA standard for children re-entering schools, but that at least 27 earlier readings had been above this standard. Chest X rays had been taken for 350 of about 4,000 firefighters who worked at the site. Quoted experts disagreed about the risk to residents. The author concluded that the state of the science could not predict all possible long-term health effects.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: news feature article (journalistic report based on interviews and agency data; no original study)
• Who was studied: Residents, schoolchildren, and rescue, recovery and cleanup workers around the World Trade Center site in lower Manhattan after 11 September 2001; nearly 20,000 people lived within a half-mile, close to 3,000 of them children
• Exposure: Dust and smoke from the collapse of the towers, including asbestos from fireproofing sprayed on steel beams (fiber type not named), as well as particulate matter, lead, PCBs and other contaminants
• Main results:
  • 5,000 tons of asbestos-containing fireproofing material had been sprayed up to the fortieth floor of one tower by the time of New York City's 1970 spraying ban
  • All 99 EPA samples taken in and around Ground Zero between October 12 and October 15 showed asbestos levels below 70 structures per square millimeter, the AHERA standard for children re-entering schools
  • At least 27 earlier readings had shown asbestos levels above this standard
  • Independent contractors' dust testing suggested the explosions may have pulverized asbestos fibers into short particles too small for conventional testing methods; that report was not yet available
  • Chest X rays had been taken for 350 of about 4,000 firefighters who worked at the site, as a possible baseline
  • Stephen Levin of the Selikoff Center was quoted as saying the chance of mesothelioma or other asbestos-related disease was vanishingly small for residents, while other researchers were reported to believe even single exposures can be hazardous
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that the state of the science could not predict all possible long-term environmental health effects of the disaster
• Limitations the authors state:
  • Not all listed contaminants were being tested for at the site, and final data were not yet available
  • The long-term effects of the potential exposures were not yet known

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Respirator, AHERA, Chest X-Ray.

Related studies

• Health and environmental consequences of the world trade center disaster — P.J. Landrigan, P.J. Lioy, et al. (2004)
• Environmental health of children — A.M. Dunn, C. Burns, et al. (2003)
• Safety and health of heavy equipment operators at Ground Zero — B.E. Lippy (2002)
• Children's health in Latin America: the influence of environmental exposures — A. Laborde, F. Tomasina, et al. (2015)
• Toxicologic agents of concern for search-and-rescue dogs responding to urban disasters — L.A. Murphy, S.M. Gwaltney-Brant, et al. (2003)
• Occupational exposures during the World Trade Center disaster response — K.M. Wallingford, E.M. Snyder (2001)

Browse more research in Environmental Health Perspectives, or return to medical research.