Safety and health of heavy equipment operators at Ground Zero

Our plain-English summary of Safety and health of heavy equipment operators at Ground Zero, by B.E. Lippy (American Journal of Industrial Medicine, 2002).

The study

• Author: B.E. Lippy
• Journal: American Journal of Industrial Medicine
• Published: 2002;42(6):539-42
• Cited by: 3 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

In plain English

This report came from the head of an International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) safety and health team that arrived at Ground Zero, the World Trade Center site, on September 17, 2001. The team collected about 150 air samples inside heavy equipment cabs. For 9 days in October 2001, it checked by binoculars, once daily, whether each operator in the restricted zone wore a respirator. Fewer than half, and sometimes fewer than one-third, were wearing them. Nearly all the team's samples were below OSHA exposure limits, and most were below detection limits. For asbestos, 60% of cab samples were above the EPA clearance level of 0.01 structures per cubic centimeter when short fibers were counted, but almost no fibers were long enough to count under the OSHA standard. The author concluded that half-face respirators with cartridges protective against fine particles, organic vapors and acid gas (P-100/OV/AG) were adequately protective if conscientiously worn. The author called the OSHA asbestos standard particularly inappropriate for the site. The author noted that these samples were a very minor fraction of all those collected.

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: Field report by an industrial hygiene team: observation of respirator use and air sampling inside equipment cabs, with commentary and recommendations
• Who was studied: Heavy equipment operators working in the restricted zone at Ground Zero, New York, observed once a day for 9 days in October 2001. Air samples were taken inside their equipment cabs. The number of operators is not given.
• Exposure: Airborne asbestos measured by transmission electron microscopy. The fiber type is not named; the author attributes the fibers to pulverized sprayed-on insulation. Metals, organic vapors, total dust, silica, lead and carbon monoxide were also monitored.
• Main results:
  • Respirator use by heavy equipment operators was generally poor: less than one-half, and sometimes less than one-third, were wearing respirators while working on the pile
  • The IUOE sample results were nearly all below OSHA Permissible Exposure Limits, and the majority were below the detection limits of the analytical methods
  • In a screen of 60 chemical compounds on September 22, 2001, all were below detection limits except acetone, hexane and toluene, which were far below ACGIH recommended limits
  • Sixty percent of the IUOE samples inside heavy equipment cabs were above the EPA clearance level of 0.01 structures/cm3 when short fibers (above 0.5, unit printed as 'mm') were counted. Almost none of the fibers were longer than the OSHA cut-off.
  • The few overexposures measured at the site were almost always linked to specific tasks, such as silica exposure while drilling into the slurry wall
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that half-face respirators with cartridges protective against fine particles, organic vapors and acid gas (P-100/OV/AG) were adequately protective if conscientiously worn. The author also argued that the OSHA asbestos standard was particularly inappropriate for the World Trade Center site.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The team's roughly 150 samples were a very minor fraction of all samples collected at Ground Zero

Related studies

• Environmental aftermath — L. Claudio (2001)
• Stoking Ground Zero health worries — R. Harris (2002)
• Occupational exposures during the World Trade Center disaster response — K.M. Wallingford, E.M. Snyder (2001)
• Acute eosinophilic pneumonia in a New York City firefighter exposed to World Trade Center dust — W.N. Rom, M. Weiden, et al. (2002)
• Effect of respiratory protective equipment on exposure to asbestos fibres during removal of asbestos insulation — H. Akkersdijk, C.F. Bremmer, et al. (1989)
• Evaluation of Airborne Asbestos Concentrations Associated with the Operation and Maintenance of Brakes and Clutches on Nonautomated Heavy Equipment — J. Sahmel, H. Avens, et al. (2022)

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