Pollution worries experts as smoke lingers over the city
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A hazardous brew of dust, soot, asbestos and toxic combustion gases will pose a continuing threat to rescue workers long after the flames are extinguished, environmental health experts say.
Though some lucky weather patterns have helped reduce the risk that the airborne contamination poses to the general population, the environmental risks will be much higher for those laboring in the smoldering ruins of the World Trade Center.
"The people who are really going to be at risk are the firefighters, the police and others who are working in that rubble day after day. They"re going to need training, and they"re going to need to wear protective equipment," said Dr. Philip Landrigan, director of environmental and occupational medicine at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in Manhattan.
People who smoke or have asthma or other respiratory problems are at special risk, but even previously healthy people may develop wheezing or other asthma-like symptoms after prolonged exposure to the smoke, said Dr. Alan Fein, a specialist in smoke inhalation injuries and the chief of pulmonary and critical care medicine for the North Shore-LIJ Health System. "I don"t think we"ve ever really seen a situation on this scale with so much dust and airborne contaminants." He said people who are still having trouble breathing eight to 12 hours after leaving the blast site should consult a physician.
Those who find themselves repeatedly spitting up phlegm are expelling dust and other particles from their lungs, a sign of a well-functioning respiratory system cleansing itself. But the greater threat is posed by smaller particles that penetrate past the upper bronchia of the lungs and lodge deeply in the air sacs.
Experts highlighted three specific small-particle risks to people working at ground zero: asbestos fibers, combustion gases and soot.
During the twin towers" construction in 1970 and "71, a slurry mixture of asbestos and cement was sprayed onto steel supporting trusses and beams as fireproofing material. But several unions and industrial hygienists protested, and after an airborne plume of white asbestos powder was detected as far away as Brooklyn, the City Council banned spray-on asbestos, and the federal government followed a year later.
The city council"s action halted the spraying but not before almost 3,000 trusses between floors 9 and 37 had been coated with hundreds of tons of the material.