August 2002 Articles (Back to Relevant Articles by Month)
Click Here For More Bird's Eye Pictures of the Plume
NY1 For You: Landlord Sues Tenant Forced To Leave Apartment Near WTC Site, NY1, August 27, 2002
New York Announces Details of Greater 9/11 Business Aid, By Joseph P. Fried, NY TImes, 8/28/2
WTC kin in rent spat, By Leo Standora, NY Daily News, Tuesday, August 27th, 2002
NY Kids May Carry 9/11 Mental Scars as Adults, ABC News/Reuters, August 25, 2002
Fire Heroes' Trucks Still Tainted By WTC Dust, By Al Guart, NY Post, August 25, 2002
Ill Winds of 9/11, Little scrutiny for Brooklyn - where attack's toxic smoke drifted, By Laurie Garrett, NY Newsday, August 23, 2002
Study Finds Respiratory Problems Among WTC Cleanup Workers, NY1, August 24, 2002
Do lower Manhattan cleanup right, By William F. Henning, Jr., NY Daily NewsThursday, August 22nd, 2002
NY1 For You Follow-Up: Elderly Residents Of Chatham Green Houses Get Relief, August 23, 2002
More Aid Seen for Business Downtown, By Joseph P. Fried, NY Times, August 23, 2002
Program to Cover Psychiatric Help for 9/11 Families, By Erica Goode, NY Times, August 21, 2002
Ground Zero housing aid now available, By Greg Gittrich, NY Daily News, Thursday, August 15th, 2002
WTC Trucks Had Wrong Dust Filters, By Kenneth R. Bazinet, NY Daily News, Wednesday, August 14th, 2002
A Slap to Bravest, By Michele McPhee, NY Daily News, Wednesday, August 14th, 2002
UR Studies Dust, Debris from WTC Explosion, University of Rochester Press Release, circa 8/14/2
Asbestos Fallout At Stuyvesant HS, By Carl Campanile, NY Post, 8/14/2
Asbestos fear afoot at Stuyvesant, NY Daily News, 8/7/2
Asbestos: Alarmingly High Levels, Many fire trucks at Ground Zero have been contaminated, Newsweek, August 12th Issue
Details of E.P.A. cleanup plan draws fire, By Sascha Brodsky; Downtown Express, August 14, 2002
Cop can sue city on Ground Zero ills, NY Daily News, 8/7/2
Asbestos Shock Rocks Stuy HS, NY Post, 8/8/2
U.S. to Test for Contaminants in 250 Downtown Apartments, NY Times, 8/7/2
EPA Details Manhattan Cleanup Plan, Associate Press, 8/7/2
You Won't Believe This: Youth Group Helps Re-Plant Garden Destroyed On 9/11, NY1, 8/7/2
Hiroshima Pol Knocks U.S., Associated Press, 8/6/2
WTC Clinic Opens, Clinton urges $90M more for initiative, By Margaret Ramirez, NY Newsday, 8/6/2
Cleanup Bids for WTC-Area Apts., NY Daily News, 8/6/2
9/11 Survivors Feel Duty to Kin, NY Daily News, 8/4/2
Top Stories
NY1
For You: Landlord Sues Tenant Forced To Leave Apartment Near WTC Site
AUGUST 27TH, 2002
New York Announces Details of Greater 9/11 Business Aid, By Joseph P. Fried, NY TImes, 8/28/2
New York State and City gave details yesterday of their plans to increase aid to small businesses in Lower Manhattan that are suffering as a result of the terrorist attack last September.
In the largest increase, small businesses that were in the World Trade Center or its immediate vicinity on the day of the attack are eligible for up to 25 days' worth of revenue losses, instead of up to 10 days' worth, as was previously the case. A $300,000 maximum for those businesses remains in place.
Lesser increases were announced for other sections of Lower Manhattan. Officials have said that businesses farther from the trade center were generally forced to close for shorter periods and thus their losses were smaller.
Nearly 8,800 businesses that have already received the maximum amount of money for which they were eligible under the former rules of the program, the World Trade Center Business Recovery Grant Program, may now ask for more. First-time applicants will be subject to the new rules.
The increase came after many small businesses in Lower Manhattan, and some of their advocates, complained that the grants were inadequate. The increase was reported to be in the works last week.
Yesterday, one advocate called the increases "a welcome step." Referring to the trade center site and its immediate neighborhood, the advocate, Kevin Curnin, said: "The increase within the restricted zone reflects that this is where small businesses have been the most underserved. We hope this is a signal of more changes to come." Mr. Curnin is a lawyer for From the Ground Up, a group of nearly 300 small businesses in Lower Manhattan.
Charles A. Gargano, chairman of the Empire State Development Corporation, the New York economic development agency, which is one of the primary administrators of the federally funded program, denied that criticism had led to the changes.
"We were dealing with an unprecedented situation," he said of the trade center's destruction and the ensuing effort to fashion a meaningful aid program.
Over all, the program — which aids businesses with up to 500 employees — has awarded $242 million out of its $481 million. The application deadline is Dec. 31; businesses that have received aid and reapplied will be notified if they are eligible for more.
The increase in maximum days to 25 from 10 is effective in the area bounded by Chambers and Rector Streets, Broadway and the Hudson River.
In the rest of the area south of Canal Street, the maximum days rise to seven from five, with awards capped at $150,000. Between Canal Street and Houston Street, the maximum number of days rises to five from three, with a $100,000 maximum grant, and between Houston and 14th Streets, the maximum rises to three days from two, with a top amount of $50,000.
More information may be obtained by calling (800) 456-8369 or (866) 227-0458.
WTC kin in rent spat
, By Leo Standora, NY Daily News, Tuesday, August 27th, 2002One of the complaints filed against Danielle Kousoulis - a 29-year-old Cantor Fitzgerald vice president - was that she failed to give three months' notice she was leaving, her family said.
"If she could have, she would have," Kousoulis' sister Eleni, 32, said bitterly.
She and her parents, George and Zoe Kousoulis of Haddon Heights, N.J., have been locked in a months-long dispute with landlord Denise Lyman over the sixth-floor loft in the Packard Condominium on W. 86th St. between Columbus and Amsterdam Aves.
Zoe Kousoulis said the rent on the $2,500-a-month apartment was paid through the end of the month and the place was cleaned before her daughter's possessions were moved out Oct. 22.
A short time later, Lyman, who couldn't be reached for comment, began legal action that led to an Aug. 14 letter in which she claimed she's an unpaid creditor and threatened to go to court to get her money.
With the first anniversary of Sept. 11 coming up, the Kousoulises said this is the last thing they need.
"We're going through enough without having to go through this as well," Zoe Kousoulis said. "I can't see how greedy people can be."
Eleni Kousoulis, who said Lyman didn't try to rent the apartment but instead moved in herself, said, "I don't want to think a person could be so mean, so insensitive. I have to think there is something wrong."
Refusal to help
The family said they first ran afoul of Lyman when she refused to let them into the loft to get Kousoulis' hairbrush for a DNA sample. The sample was needed to identify her remains. Police eventually helped them get in.
Although family members wanted to donate Kousoulis' furniture to charity, they said Lyman refused to let the Salvation Army in to collect it.
City lawyers and property managers said a landlord moving into an apartment is evidence of a surrender and likely releases the family from any obligation to pay rent past the occupancy date.
"If the landlord decided to move into it, then she would have extinguished the responsibility of the tenant," said Charles Mehlman, senior vice president of the Lefrak Organization, which owns and leases 60,000 apartments in the city.
"We just want to put all of it behind us and start thinking about the happy times," Zoe Kousoulis said. "We just want to get what happened in New York that day out of our minds."
NY Kids May Carry 9/11 Mental Scars
as Adults, ABC News/Reuters, August 25, 2002
Y O K O H A M A, Japan, Aug. 26 — Thousands of children living in New York are
struggling with mental problems related to Sept. 11 that in many cases will last into
adulthood, according to psychiatrists who studied the impact of the attacks.
As the anniversary of the attacks that killed 3,000 people approaches, the study suggests the mental health of a whole generation of young New Yorkers has been damaged, with problems like alcohol abuse and depression showing significant rises.
"For thousands of children this is an image, an experience that they carry with them for life ... it's a whole generation," said Christina Hoven, one of the psychiatrists who conducted the study on around 8,300 New York children aged between nine and 18.
The children who took part in the study were assessed around six months after the attacks and either lost a relative in the World Trade Center or had one who escaped.
Hoven said the surprising aspect of the results was that the eight forms of mental illness, including depression, post traumatic stress disorder and alcohol abuse, were just as prevalent in children who were nowhere near Ground Zero as in those who had witnessed the attacks firsthand.
"All of the eight disorders were quite elevated from what could be expected in the general population," Hoven said.
"We took the entire city and what was surprising was that rates around the city were quite similar so the important thing was not proximity to the disaster but age, with younger children being more vulnerable." Haven and her colleagues at Columbia University are in Japan for the World Psychiatry Congress where they will present the results of their study on Tuesday.
She said many of the symptoms mirrored mental problems more often seen in war zones, which suggested that many of New York's 1.2 million children may be unaware of the mental scars they are carrying until later in life.
Another traumatic event, such as a car crash, could suddenly trigger a mental reaction in adulthood.
"We're talking about a very large population at risk," she said. "We know enough about the effects of the ravages of war. They keep it a secret, they don't tell their children what they experienced. It's something you don't even want to repeat, but then suddenly there's a car accident and you relive it."
While the children had shown a similar reaction to their peers in war-torn countries, the study also found that New York's unique ethnic mix and its transport system made for important differences.
Many children of immigrants who had experienced trauma abroad are more vulnerable to Sept. 11-related problems due to past experience.
The fact that so many children travel a long distance to school had also resulted in a sharp increase in agoraphobia, a fear of open spaces, that is not normally associated with disasters.
Hoven said that on average, around three to five percent of children could be expected to suffer from the complaint, but the study had found levels at about 15 percent.
"In New York city, 750,000 children a day travel to school ... agoraphobia makes a lot of sense because of the exposure of having to ride in these situations," she said.
Fire Heroes' Trucks Still Tainted By WTC Dust, By Al Guart, NY Post, August 25, 2002
Firefighters are rushing to emergencies around the city in trucks still carrying remnants of toxic World Trade Center dust and debris nearly a year after the Sept. 11 attacks, The Post has learned.
Of the 122 firetrucks involved in rescue and recovery efforts at Ground Zero, 93 have yet to be totally cleared of asbestos, Fiberglas, lead and other contaminants, FDNY officials have confirmed and lab reports show.
But those trucks went back into use months ago.
Working firefighters continue to find debris fragments and spoonfuls of dust behind seat cushions, in hose compartments and in air-conditioning units of their rigs - some of it potentially toxic.
Debris scooped from three professionally cleaned rigs was tested by a watchdog group, the New York Environmental Law and Justice Project, and found to have unsafe levels of asbestos and Fiberglas, reports obtained by The Post show.
In the six months following Sept. 11, 332 firefighters required more than four weeks of leave for "significant" respiratory problems, according to FDNY records. About 60 percent of those remain on light duty or sick leave, or have retired.
Some firefighters point out that health concerns prompted the city to condemn 890 privately owned cars and 91 FDNY vehicles that were parked near the trade center and deemed impossible to safely clean of all dust and contaminants. The firefighters say they had expected similar strict standards to be applied to the cleaning of those dusted firetrucks put back into city service.
"It seemed every time they'd come back to the firehouses, the members were not satisfied with what was done," said Uniformed Firefighters Association Sergeant-at-Arms Phil McArdle.
"If we can't adequately protect our members, we can't adequately protect the public."
FDNY Chief William Van Ward said 214 FDNY vehicles have been tested for airborne asbestos, using sensors that detect airborne matter and taking swipe samples off flat surfaces. Nearly all the trucks tested were deemed safe, he said, because the levels of any airborne asbestos in them did not reach the federal safety cut-off of 70 fibers per square centimeter.
"Anyone who thinks the Fire Department has been neglectful is just wrong," Van Ward said.
Van Ward confirmed it was the department's intention "to decontaminate all the trucks that were down there [at the trade center]."
"Every truck in the fleet will be at least tested," he said.
Decontamination of the remaining trucks is set to begin Sept. 3 and is expected to take the Brooklyn-based cleaning firm Northern Valley Contracting five months to complete at a cost of at least $3.5 million.
They call it World Trade Center Cough - the hacking, wheezing, horrible cough that
heaves the chests of many who inhaled Ground Zero air after the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks. Scientists and health officials have studied the cough and scoured some
neighborhoods of New York City for victims of inhaled Trade Center debris.
But there is a critical flaw, experts say, in all the research, Environmental Protection
Agency cleanup programs and federal services related to exposure to World Trade Center
debris: The efforts are concentrated on Manhattan, but, except for the area immediately
around Ground Zero, the plume did not spread around the borough. It went directly to
Brooklyn.
Newsday has obtained high-resolution photographs shot on Sept. 11 by satellites. From
these images it is clear that the plume of toxic debris blew from Ground Zero southeast,
across the Brooklyn Bridge, through the neighborhoods of Brooklyn Heights, DUMBO (Down
Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass), Cobble Hill, Boerum Hill and Park Slope, across
Prospect Park and straight out to Coney Island. Though the plume's density was highest
directly over Ground Zero, throughout the day the plume completely obscured the Brooklyn
Bridge and neighborhoods out to Prospect Park.
Click Here For More Bird's Eye Pictures of the Plume
On Sept. 11 the plume never crossed Duane Street, which is below Canal Street, and
never moved in a northwesterly direction that might have included significant parts of
TriBeCa and SoHo in Manhattan.
Further, studies of the debris indicate its toxicity may have actually been higher for
some chemicals and asbestos as it crossed the East River, and Brooklyn hospitals report
continuing respiratory disease cases.
Yet environmental cleanup services and lung exposure studies have focused exclusively on
residents of Manhattan and Ground Zero workers. Federal and state-funded services have
gone to Manhattan neighborhoods that, according to NASA images, were not directly exposed
to the plume. Only recently has the Federal Emergency Management Agency begun offering air
filters and air-conditioner cleaning to some Brooklyn residents.
The New York Academy of Medicine has sponsored more than a dozen studies of human health
and psychosocial reactions to the events, but none has included any of the 2.4 million
residents of Brooklyn except for firefighters and police officers who reside in the
borough but worked at Ground Zero.
Studies under way at Mt. Sinai Medical School and NYU, through the state Department of
Health - indeed, all federal- and state-funded Sept. 11 health studies - are limited to
Manhattan residents or Ground Zero workers. Even the $9-million air pollution study that
Congress agreed to fund under a bill sponsored by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) but
President George W. Bush refused to sign, would study only Manhattan residents and Ground
Zero workers. When asked why Brooklynites would be excluded, Clinton staffers indicated
that nobody from the borough had complained or indicated there was any need for their
inclusion.
"For some reason my assumption was the most affected people were right under the
Trade Center. But we all got about as much in Brooklyn," New York City Council member
David Yassky said in an interview.
When the first hijacked jet hit the World Trade Center, Yassky, whose constituency takes
in the Brooklyn neighborhoods most densely covered by the plume in NASA images, was near a
polling place on Seventh Avenue in Park Slope, campaigning in the primary being held that
day. He saw an enormous black cloud descend upon the neighborhood, then raced to his
headquarters in Brooklyn Heights, three miles closer to Ground Zero. As he stepped out of
his car, Yassky recalled, he was immediately enveloped in gray dust.
"There was a film of dust on everything - on cars, stores, everywhere in Brooklyn
Heights. If you were there, as I was, you saw several hours of debris rain down on your
neighborhood," he said. "When you think about where all the scientific studies
and social services have focused, well, I'm stunned. It's kind of amazing that nobody
analyzed the plume" before deciding how to focus studies and services.
Throughout the fall, as the fires consumed Ground Zero, prevailing wind directions varied.
But between Sept. 11 and Dec. 14, when the inferno finally ended, National Weather Service
data indicate, more than 80 percent of the time winds carried the fumes and potential
toxins along the same path observed on Sept. 11 - directly across Downtown Brooklyn and
out toward Coney Island, or the Rockaways in southern Queens. On some autumn days the
winds blew hard enough to carry the plume into Nassau County.
"The data is beginning to materialize saying the most important area outside of lower
Manhattan was Brooklyn," said environmental scientist Paul Lioy of Rutgers
University. Lioy heads a large team of federal and academic scientists that is trying to
determine precisely what was in the plume and fire-smoke, and where it fell day by day.
"This was a very horrendous air pollution event," Lioy said in an interview.
"The tremendous crush of all this material was horrific. You had dust, smoke, fires,
fumes, the remnants of those tragic planes. It was a very complex event, unlike anything
we or anybody else has ever seen."
Well over 95 percent of the debris fell during the first 24 hours. Throughout that period,
according to NASA images, the debris blew into Brooklyn. Lioy's team collected dust
samples from three lower Manhattan locations on Sept. 12 and submitted them to a battery
of costly and tedious analytical tests, ranging from electron microscope scrutiny to gas
chromatograph chemical tests.
The 110 stories of the Twin Towers featured thousands of plate-glass windows that exploded
into invisible, microscopic projectiles of lung-piercing silica glass. Samples collected
from all sites contained large amounts of microscopic glass fibers, most of them less than
a micron in diameter and more than 75 microns long - precisely in the minuscule size range
to wreak havoc with human lungs.
"The glass fiber was a surprise to everybody," Lioy said. "It was one of
those things that we never anticipated."
The variability of the debris with distance was also a surprise. Samples collected just
one block from the World Trade Center, on Cortlandt Street, were composed of pulverized
concrete, glass, unburned or partially burned jet fuel, and construction materials. The pH
of the material was an astonishing 11.5 - far more alkali than anything the human lung,
with a normally acidic pH of about 4.0, would naturally be exposed to or is equipped to
handle.
Samples collected on Market Street, near the East River, were less alkali but still a
remarkable pH of 9.3. While the heavy concrete content seems to have decreased with
distance, the Market Street sample contained more than three times as much chrysotile
asbestos - the form that can produce severe lung disease - as did dust close to the World
Trade Center. Heavy metal content - such as zinc, strontium, lead and aluminum - also
increased with distance. So did potentially toxic organic chemicals, some of which are
considered carcinogens, such as PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) and PAHs (polycyclic
aromatic hydrocarbons).
Fire experts speculate that the area immediately around the World Trade Center got hit
with the heaviest substances - the pulverized concrete, steel, office equipment, cars and
construction material. But the tremendous heat from the jet-fueled inferno created an
updraft that lifted small, lighter particulates and gases up, away from Ground Zero and
toward the East River.
Unfortunately, Lioy writes in a scientific study entitled "Lessons Learned,"
little is known about the debris that reached Brooklyn because nobody monitored the
borough.
Dr. Gerald Lombardo, chief of pulmonary care at New York Methodist Hospital, has seen many
cases of what he believes to be World Trade Center Cough among Brooklyn residents who do
not work in lower Manhattan. "I'm pretty much in touch with all the leading pulmonary
programs in New York," Lombardo said in an interview, "and I would say that the
number of pulmonary visits has just skyrocketed for upper respiratory problems."
In his Park Slope hospital, Lombardo insisted, "the number of visits clearly doubled,
and that has stayed high. It's not surprising to me that this population will be
complaining for some time."
Lombardo is especially concerned about the microscopic glass exposure, which, he said,
could "mimic the pathophysiology of asbestos disease."
In Brooklyn Heights, the Long Island College Hospital also saw a "huge influx"
of respiratory cases, Dr. Tucker Woods, an emergency room physician, said.
Dr. Walfred Leon of SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn calls NASA's images
"amazing," arguing they "certainly make a case for Brooklyn exposure."
Leon has conducted a pilot study, funded by the Patrolman's Benevolent Association, of
police officers who were working at Ground Zero between Sept. 11 and Oct. 31 and
subsequently experienced respiratory problems. He found a correlation between their
locations and the path of the plume.
Like many other Brooklyn physicians, Leon believes he is seeing an increase in reactive
airways disease - a poorly understood syndrome that can lead to lifelong breathing
problems as a result of a single exposure to an acute pulmonary irritant.
"We've never encountered anything like this before in medicine," said Leon, who
thinks the chemical and particulate complexity of the debris and smoke exceed anything
pulmonologists have previously encountered. Indeed, he argues, World Trade Center Cough
may very well be an entirely new disease syndrome.
Leon thinks the NASA photographs should be used to guide scientific investigation, setting
priorities on who ought to be studied.
The city Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention soon will
announce a unique program aimed at tracking 200,000 New Yorkers for 20 years to see what
impact Sept. 11 has had on their health. Sometime this fall the World Trade Center
Registry, as it is called, will begin enrolling participants.
Though details of the study design are still being determined, including the boundaries of
the residential population, it is currently envisioned as limited to Manhattan residents
and Ground Zero workers, Sandra Mullin, spokeswoman for the city department, said.
Study Finds Respiratory Problems Among WTC Cleanup Workers
, NY1, AUGUST 24TH, 2002
A recent study has found
widespread respiratory problems among cleanup workers at the World Trade Center site.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins University said the workers were almost six times more likely
to routinely cough than they were before starting work at the site.
Symptoms such as sore throat, coughing and wheezing were common among workers, though
tests didn't indicate any extensive impairment.
Researchers also found that those who worked more days at the site reported more symptoms.
The researchers surveyed 183 workers at the site during a two-week period in December.
Do lower Manhattan cleanup right
, By William F. Henning, Jr., NY Daily NewsThursday, August 22nd, 2002It's a shame that the agency isn't going to do it right.
The EPA's aim, of course, is to rid these apartments of the asbestos and other toxic materials thrown into the air by the collapse of the twin towers and the fires that burned for four months afterward.
When the EPA announced in June that it would do this, it was reversing the position it held ever since Sept. 11. For eight long months, the EPA insisted no cleanup was necessary. Then, when at last it agreed that, okay, maybe one was, it said the cleanup was "to reduce the safety concerns of residents."
As if the release of hundreds of tons of asbestos, fiberglass, lead, highly alkaline concrete dust and many other toxic substances wasn't a real public health hazard, just the concern of some worrywarts.
The indoor cleanup should have started right after the collapse, at the same time the outdoor cleanup began. It is now too late to prevent the exposures that have already occurred, but it is not too late to prevent future harmful exposures.
How? First off, the scope of the EPA cleanup - limited to residences below Canal St., and then only when the occupant requests it - is too narrow. The contamination is not limited to residences. It is present in workplaces and public spaces and in residences where the owner does not request a cleanup. All contaminated places should be cleaned up on a building-by-building basis.
Then, too, the cleanup must be conducted by properly trained and protected personnel. Our previous calls for protection of all cleanup workers were ignored, with the result that more than 400 day laborers face the prospect of long-term respiratory illness.
As we learned last week, the EPA itself was guilty of a shocking oversight lapse when it permitted a cleanup contractor to spew asbestos into the air by vacuuming downtown streets with improperly equipped trucks.
The EPA should ensure that similar failures do not recur by requiring contractors to prove their workers have been properly trained and equipped. And then theEPA should take full charge of the cleanup.
Though the EPA has the sole responsibility for the cleanup, it perversely rejects its mandated role. Instead, it is calling the cleanup a "collaborative" effort of federal, state and city agencies.
Only the federal government has the resources and expertise to clean lower Manhattan. The EPA can and should call on other agencies to assist in this effort, but not to co-manage it.
However belated, it is good that the EPA has agreed to a partial cleanup of lower Manhattan. But the cleanup will only be effective if it includes all contaminated places, including, in particular, workplaces.
It is not too late to do it right.
Henning is chairman of the New York
Committee for
Occupational Safety and Health. www.nycosh.org
NY1 For You Follow-Up: Elderly
Residents Of Chatham Green Houses Get Relief
AUGUST 23RD, 2002
ew York State and City are planning to increase
financial aid to small businesses near the World Trade Center site that suffered financial
losses stemming from the Sept. 11 attack, a government official knowledgeable about the
plan said last night.
The increase would come after months of criticism from business people in the area that the amounts available in the World Trade Center Business Recovery Grant Program were too small to provide meaningful aid to small businesses that were forced to remain closed the longest and suffered the biggest losses.
But the official denied that the planned increase was an admission that the state and city agencies that administer the program, which uses federal funds, had provided for inadequate grants when the program began in January.
"We were dealing with an unprecedented situation," the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said of the initial planning for determining the amounts of the grants. "It's sensible to amend the plan based on subsequent events."
As of last Friday, $238 million of the $481 million available in the program had been approved for distribution. Critics had called this too small a proportion, given the need, and said it showed that the grant awards process should be loosened.
Before yesterday, officials of the two agencies involved, the state's Empire State Development Corporation and the city's Economic Development Corporation, expressed confidence that the remaining amount would be distributed under the original rules as small businesses continued to apply for the aid, which has been available to businesses from 14th Street to the Battery. Applications can be submitted until Dec. 31.
The grant increase — whose amount was still being determined yesterday — would be available only to businesses immediately around the trade center site: between Chambers Street and Rector Street on the north and south, and from Broadway to the Hudson River.
Under the existing rules, a small business in that neighborhood can receive up 4 percent of its previous annual gross revenues — or 10 days of losses based on a 250-day year — up to a maximum of $300,000. Lesser amounts are available farther from the trade center site. Small businesses are defined as those with up to 500 employees.
More than 9,300 businesses in the overall area from 14th Street southward have applied for the grants and more than 8,500 have received the $238 million so far distributed. Figures were not available on how much of the totals involved businesses in the smaller area where the increase is planned.
Critics of the program have said that businesses in that area generally have had the greatest need, because they tended to be closed the longest — some are still closed — and to have the greatest building and inventory damage.
The official who told of the planned change said that businesses that have already received aid could apply for the difference between what they have been given and the new maxium.
He said he did not believe changes were being planned in another major program, which provides grants of up to $5,000 per employee to businesses with up to 200 workers that sign leases to remain in or move to the area south of Canal Street. Critics have said that program is too restrictive. Officials have said the restrictions are needed to ensure that the aid has significant impact on the area's recovery.
he American Red Cross and the September 11th Fund said
yesterday that they would underwrite the expense of extended mental health treatment for
people directly affected by the terrorist attacks last year. The effort may be the most
ambitious ever undertaken by charitable organizations to address the emotional needs of
disaster victims.
The joint program, which begins this week, will make psychiatric help available to hundreds of thousands of people and is intended to remove many barriers that keep trauma survivors from seeking treatment, representatives of the charities said.
Those who meet the program's eligibility requirements will be reimbursed for the cost of psychotherapy, drug or alcohol treatment, psychotropic medications and, in some cases, hospital care. They can seek help from any licensed mental health professional they choose and are not limited to specific agencies or practitioners. The benefit is available not only to residents of New York or the Washington area, but also to people in other states and other countries.
"We know that many people affected by Sept. 11 will need some form of counseling and that many of them will not realize it for months or even for years," said Joshua Gotbaum, the chief executive of the September 11th Fund. "We felt we had to design a program which would pay for therapy wherever the victims were and whenever they realized they needed it."
An estimated 150,000 families fall into the eligibility categories designated by the charities, which include family members of people killed in the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks; people injured on Sept. 11; rescue and recovery workers and their families; residents displaced from their homes; those evacuated from the trade center and other buildings near Ground Zero; and children in schools below Canal Street and their families.
But Alan Goodman, the administrator of the Sept. 11 recovery program of the Red Cross, said that — based on the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and studies of the use of mental health benefits when available — the charities expected only a fraction of those eligible would use the benefit. It is also expected that of those people who do use the benefit, most will not exhaust its full term.
Even so, mental health experts said the program probably represented the largest effort to provide free psychiatric treatment to a defined population.
"In essence, this is a rudimentary foundation of a mental health system for disasters," said Dr. Darrel A. Regier, the executive director of the American Psychiatric Association's Institute for Research and Education and an expert on mental health insurance coverage. "It's a very interesting social experiment, and it should be studied very carefully for what we can learn from this in terms of a model of disaster care."
Though the Red Cross and the Oklahoma City Community Foundation provided long-term psychiatric care for the families of bombing victims, the injured and those who escaped from the rubble of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, as it turned out the number of people requiring such care was in the hundreds, not thousands.
Unlike Project Liberty, a federally financed free service that offers short-term crisis counseling for anyone experiencing distress related to Sept. 11, the charities hope to reach people at high risk for more severe emotional problems, including depression, aggravated grief, post-traumatic stress disorder, severe anxiety and alcohol or drug abuse.
So far, fewer people have made use of the psychiatric services that have been available than was expected in the fall, though surveys indicate that in New York significant numbers of residents, especially those most directly affected by the attacks, are suffering from depression, severe anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder.
Such problems, experts say, usually require longer treatment than the intense stress symptoms that are common in the aftermath of a traumatic event. In many cases, people who develop the most serious emotional difficulties delay seeking help for months or years.
The September 11th Fund will pay for psychotherapy and medication up to a limit of $3,000 a person. The Red Cross will cover up to 24 sessions of psychotherapy, pay $500 toward the cost of psychiatric medications and pay for up to 30 days of psychiatric care in a hospital.
The charities said the benefit would supplement private insurance for those with such coverage.
"The goal is to provide free mental health treatment but not to duplicate what others are doing," Mr. Goodman said. "So if you have insurance and it covers 75 percent of what your cost was, we'll make up the difference. If you have a co-pay, we'll pay that, or if you have no insurance we'll pay the whole thing."
He said the Red Cross expected to spend $40 million on the program over three to five years. The September 11th Fund projects spending $45 million to $55 million over five years for treatment and for training professionals how to recognize and treat traumatic stress reactions.
Some other charities and government agencies also offer mental health treatment, though in most cases not on such an extensive basis. The Robin Hood Foundation, for example, has set aside about $2 million to treat people who are grieving or otherwise in distress, including $50,000 to help children who lost a parent in the trade center attack or who saw it take place. The New York State Crime Victims Board will reimburse the cost of psychotherapy not covered by health insurance for some people most directly affected by the attacks.
With the sums offered by the Red Cross and the September 11th Fund, some experts said they were concerned about the potential for fraud.
"There are going to be people coming out of the woodwork to capitalize on this large amount of money that's available, some of whom will be completely legitimate" and some of whom will not be, said Dr. Regier of the psychiatric association.
To protect against abuses, the charities have hired a management company, American Case Management, to process claims, check the credentials of the mental health professionals and monitor the quality of care that patients receive.
Applications for the benefit can be made by calling Lifenet, the 24-hour hot line run by the mental health association (1-800-LIFENET), or the Red Cross's Sept. 11 call center (1-877-746-4987). People can also apply through the agencies belonging to the United Services Group consortium, set up after Sept. 11.
The Mental Health Association of New York City will determine the eligibility of people who apply.
In the age of managed care, employers and insurers often work to cut the cost of mental health care and to make sure that people do not overuse benefits. But the charities are taking a different approach.
"By and large, the interest of managed care companies and insurance companies is to limit the use of the benefit for fiscal reasons," said Dr. Gerald McCleery, the director of benefits coordination for the mental health association. "It's in our interest to work in exactly the opposite direction, to make sure that people utilize the benefit to the fullest extent possible."
Mr. Gotbaum said the September 11th Fund, which has raised $503 million from corporations and individuals, had provided cash assistance to more than 100,000 people. Only in a very few cases had people tried to defraud the charity, he said.
Ground Zero housing aid now available
, By Greg Gittrich, NY Daily News, Thursday, August 15th, 2002The Lower Manhattan Development Corp. began distributing applications yesterday for the incentive money, designed to keep homeowners and renters downtown after the Sept. 11 terror attacks. The program will dole out $281 million in federal funds through two-year grants and one-time payments. The maximum payout will total $14,500.
Those eligible for the largest two-year grants - designed to cover up to 30% of monthly rent, mortgage or maintenance payments - must commit to living in designated neighborhoods downtown for two years.
People closest to Ground Zero will receive the most money. Eligibility zones stretch from as far north as Delancey St. to the southern tip of Manhattan.
Anyone who lived in the designated zones Sept. 11 and hasn't moved out can receive a one-time $1,000 grant. The payouts are per household. Households with children under 18 also are eligible for one-time family grants ranging from $750 to $1,500 if they commit to living downtown for one year.
Applications, which must be submitted by May, are available online at www.RenewNYC.com and at several community board offices, public libraries and other locations downtown. The development corporation also launched a toll-free hotline - (866) RenewNYC or (866) 736-3969 - that is staffed weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m..
Officials said the lag time between applying and getting an initial payment will be no more than six weeks.
To minimize fraud, the corporation has hired Ernst & Young to audit the payouts. It also plans to set up a hotline people can call to report suspected fraud and will distribute the larger subsidies in monthly installments.
"We are doing our best to make sure that this program reaches the people we should reach," said corporation President Lou Tomson.
Downtown landlords say occupancy rates have risen since the program was announced Feb. 20. As of now, the money is subject to federal taxes, although Gov. Pataki is pushing the Internal Revenue Service to back off.
WTC Trucks Had Wrong Dust Filters
, By Kenneth R. Bazinet, NY Daily News, Wednesday, August 14th, 2002Feds discovered the lapse three weeks later and ordered the contractor, Earth Technology Inc., to go back and sweep the streets again, according to a report by the Environmental Protection Agency inspector general obtained by the Daily News.
Earth Technology's contract with the EPA required the use of so-called high efficiency particulate air filters, which are capable of trapping particles so tiny they can't be seen by the human eye. They keep the particles, which ordinary vacuums wouldn't catch, from escaping the vacuum trucks and seeping back into the air.
But for the first five days of the cleanup, starting Sept. 14, the 10 trucks that sucked up dust in streets of the Financial District and around Battery Park City didn't have the HEPA filters.
During the cleanup, which ended Oct. 15, thousands of people passed through the area, including rescue workers, volunteers and military personnel involved in the recovery effort.
But the report, released last month, repeatedly emphasized the air quality was safe. Other tests conducted by other sources also have repeatedly shown downtown air quality to be free of asbestos and other cancer-causing substances.
Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) demanded assurances that the missteps wouldn't happen again, especially as the interior cleaning of buildings around the World Trade Center site continues.
"This finding begs the question as to what other problems may have occurred in the weeks following Sept. 11, 2001, of which the public, and possibly even EPA itself, are still unaware," Clinton, a member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said in a letter she fired off yesterday to EPA.
Probe of EPA chief
EPA internal investigators learned of the failure to use the HEPA filters during interviews in an unrelated conflict-of-interest probe of EPA Administrator Christie Whitman. She was accused of making assurances the air quality in lower Manhattan was safe to protect the stock portfolio of her husband, who had interests in two companies in the area.
The inspector general, Emmett Dashiell, cleared Whitman of those charges, but the failure to use the HEPA filters was revealed in his report.
"It was buried," a government source said.
EPA spokeswoman Steffanie Bell, said the "unusual and unprecedented" circumstances after the terrorist attacks prevented the agency from immediately catching the lapse.
"As soon as we found it wasn't the right equipment, we immediately told the contractor to address it and bring in the proper equipment," she said.
Bell said the same mistake would not happen again, "even in the most chaotic of situations."
Repeated efforts to reach Earth Technology of New York were unsuccessful yesterday.
During the first week of the cleanup, EPA environmental scientist Dan Harkay discovered the vacuum trucks weren't using HEPA filters during a chat with a subcontractor at Ground Zero, the report said.
Harkay ordered Earth Technology to get the proper equipment, but allowed the cleanup to continue until the HEPA filters arrived. The trucks were equipped with filters, but they were considered less effective.
It was another three to four weeks before top EPA officials learned of the mistake and ordered the second round of street cleaning, the report said.
A slap to Bravest
, By Michele McPhee, NY Daily News, Wednesday, August 14th, 2002The Fireman's Fund, which has insured the 23rd St. building that houses UFA headquarters, refused to continue providing coverage for the building or union officials' cars, saying "Manhattan is too much of a risk," union officials said yesterday.
In a notice of nonrenewal sent to the UFA, the Fireman's Fund explained that it was dumping the account "due to the increase in hazards and exposures to loss," said Joe Miccio, recording secretary for the UFA.
"Isn't it sad that the Fireman's Fund would cancel the insurance policy for the largest firefighters union in the world?" Miccio said.
"The company's motto is stick with us, but when the union needed them the most, they turned their back on us."
'It's outrageous'
In addition to the Firefighter Daniel DeFranco building, which houses the UFA, the Fireman's Fund - a division of Allianz Group - covers union members' cars, said Ken Hehir, the UFA's insurance agent.
"This company uses a symbol that reflects heroism, but they are doing the opposite, they are running," Hehir said. "I think it's outrageous."
According to the company's Web site, the Fireman's Fund Insurance Co. got its name from an arrangement made in 1863, when the company paid 10% of its profits to widows and orphans of firefighters.
"Although that arrangement was later dissolved, the name endured," the Web site reads.
Calls to the company were not returned yesterday.
UR Studies Dust, Debris from WTC
Explosion
Researchers Looking for Clues to Health
Effects of Exposure
Scientists collected samples of dust and debris from streets, parked cars, even a child's high chair near the World Trade Center immediately after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack. Now the samples have been shipped to Rochester for analysis by researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center.
The goal of the study is to investigate the potential short- and long-term health effects for rescue workers and Manhattan residents who were directly exposed to dust and other ultrafine hazardous particles near the WTC site. The National Institutes of Health provided $1.2 million for the project, which involves collaborative work between the UR and New York University.
The samples arrived earlier this month, preserved in tiny vials and on special filters. UR Medical Center lead investigators Jacob Finkelstein, Ph.D., professor, Pediatrics, Environmental Medicine and Radiation Oncology, and Guenter Oberdoerster, Ph.D., professor, Environmental Medicine, will conduct experiments to measure changes in gene expression when lung cells are exposed to fine and ultrafine dust particles. They will also try to determine whether exposure could result in a greater risk of infectious diseases of the lung.
The UR Medical Center is poised to do the detailed toxicology analysis of the dust samples through its Environmental Health Sciences Center. The EHSC is funded with government grants and recognized internationally for its ability to perform sophisticated studies of how environmental toxins impair health.
Another objective of the WTC research is to provide timely public information. Dina Markowitz, Ph.D., director of Community Outreach and Education Programs for the UR Environmental Health Services Center, will collaborate with NYU to produce newsletters for Manhattan residents who attend events related to Sept. 11. The newsletters will highlight ongoing research and any significant public health information.
Asbestos Fallout At Stuyvesant HS, By Carl Campanile, NY Post, 8/14/2
Stuyvesant HS's new-student orientation has become a course in disorientation.
The elite public high school near Ground Zero has relocated its Aug. 28 freshman orientation program to Humanities HS on West 18th Street because Sept. 11 asbestos hasn't been removed from the Stuyvesant auditorium.
Schools Chancellor Harold Levy's office insisted yesterday that Stuyvesant will be ready for business by Sept. 5.
Parents were up in arms last week after environmental tests found that the upholstery in the Stuyvesant auditorium is contaminated with asbestos - as much as 250 times what experts consider acceptable.
The federal Environmental Protection Agency last week released an expanded plan to clean indoor apartments near ground zero nearly a year after the World Trade Center disaster.
Asbestos fear afoot at Stuyvesant
, By Joe Williams, Wednesday, August 7th, 2002The asbestos results came from independent tests of the carpet, which were carried out by a consultant for the Stuyvesant Parents Association, parent leaders said.
School officials stood on the rug last fall to assure parents the school was safe for their children.
And the students returned to Stuyvesant in October.
But after classes ended in June, the carpet was replaced during cleaning and remodeling inside the school.
Subsequent tests on the carpet, conducted by engineer Howard Bader, detected asbestos levels of as much as 2.5million structures per square centimeter in one sample. Experts generally consider levels in excess of 100,000 to begin asbestos abatement efforts.
Parents, who have gone to court to force a more aggressive cleanup of the building, have been concerned about air quality at the school just blocks from Ground Zero.
"We've learned the hard way that you can't trust them on this issue," said Paul Edwards of the group Concerned Stuyvesant Parents. "They told us everything was okay."
Schools Chancellor Harold Levy's office did not respond to requests for comment on the findings.
Asbestos, which can cause cancer, is dangerous only when it is airborne. Inhaling the material can cause chronic lung disease and cancer. The fiber was used as fireproofing in at least 37 floors of the World Trade Center.
Air tests conducted by school officials and the Parents Association since September have found no traces of airborne asbestos.
Asbestos: Alarmingly High Levels, Many fire trucks at Ground Zero have been contaminated
By Suzanne Smalley, Newsweek, August 12th 2002 Issue
Bobby Stanlewicz’s exposure to disease-causing chemicals didn’t end when he left Ground Zero. The 35-year-old firefighter—who is suffering from respiratory disease—has learned that he’s spent the past year working in a contaminated truck.
The nonprofit New York Environmental Law and Justice Project recently tested some of the same engines that the New York Fire Department had approved as safe in February, and found asbestos concentrations as high as five times the 1 percent safety limit.
“The OSHA [Occupational Safety and Health Administration] standard is that asbestos does not become carcinogenic until it is airborne,” says the FDNY’s Frank Gribbon. But that standard is not ideal.
“This is a material that becomes hazardous if disturbed, which it almost surely will [be] in a fire truck full of foot traffic,” said Dr. Stephen Levin of Mount Sinai’s Center for Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
OSHA acknowledges that even with exposures that meet their standards, some people will develop asbestos-related cancers.”
Last week FDNY announced a $2 million-plus contract that will pay for the decontamination of hundreds of dust-tainted Ground Zero trucks.
Details of E.P.A. cleanup plan draws fire
, By Sascha Brodsky; Downtown Express, August 14, 2002The plan now
includes some testing for dioxins and toxic metals in a sampling of Lower Manhattan
apartments but is still coming under fire from critics.
The E.P.A. bowed to pressure from infuriated tenants around ground zero in May, promising
to clean and test apartments for asbestos. The agency maintains there is no major health
hazard in the area.
The E.P.A. had released a plan to clean homes south of Canal St. three months ago, asking
residents to request a cleanup by Sept. 3. The cleanup is available to those who live
south of Canal, Allen and Pike Sts. Businesses are not eligible for the federal cleanup.
The agency and many scientists have downplayed any health risk from the dust, saying tests
have shown the asbestos did not reach hazardous levels.
But some critics are still calling the cleanup plan too little too late. They said that
the plan should be more comprehensive in testing for a wide array of contaminants and go
beyond the E.P.A.'s Canal St. boundary.
"We know there was not a wall at Canal St.," Dr. Marjorie J. Clarke, a scientist
in residence at Lehman College in the Bronx, told a rally of scientists and residents
outside the agency's Lower Manhattan headquarters last week.
Former Councilmember Kathryn Freed said at the rally that she has suffered from
respiratory problems that she attributes to World Trade Center contaminants.
"To date, the majority of apartments near ground zero are still not cleaned,"
she said. "The E.P.A. has put the onus on us on individuals to know how to clean up
these apartments. Somehow, we are supposed to be the experts"
But agency spokesperson Bonnie Bellow said that the E.PA. will test select apartments for
other contaminants such as heavy metals with an eye toward expanding the cleanup.
"We will take a look at the data and then we will have a much clearer idea at what is
out there," she said. "If anything comes up we will make sure to follow up on
it."
The agency plans to test 250 apartments for dioxins and toxic metals like lead and
mercury. Those apartments will be randomly chosen from the approximately 3,600 apartments
whose residents have requested asbestos cleaning and testing. An additional 1,000
apartments will be tested for asbestos at the residents' request and cleaned only if their
levels exceed federal standards. If tests indicated dangerous levels of dioxins and toxic
metals, the apartments would be cleaned and an expansion of tests and cleanups would be
considered.
Bellow also said the agency may expand the cleanup boundaries beyond Canal St. if
contamination is found in buildings beyond that cutoff point.
Protestors said that the E.P.A has not adequately informed the public of the cleanup
program and that many residents would not know about it in time to sign up in time. A
hotline for people concerned about contamination, (877) 796-5471, is open until Sept. 3.
But Bellow said that the agency has mailed out over 38,000 fliers describing the program
and would continue to advertise the program in the media. She also said the agency was
considering extending the deadline for enrolling in the cleanup.
Of the approximately 38,000 eligible apartments, the agency has so far received about
3,000 requests for apartment cleanings and about 1,000 requests for tests, officials said.
The total cleanup bill, to be paid by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, is not yet
clear. But the cost of cleaning a single apartment could range from $3,000 to $8,000.
Last week, the agency gave its plan to city officials who will put contracts for the work
out to bid. Eight contractors will perform the work, which could begin as soon as next
month.
According to the plan, a cleaning crew would enter a residence and determine what level of
cleanup is appropriate according to the amount of dust and other debris. Contractors will
use special vacuums to clean floors, walls, furniture and even books for tiny particles.
Workers also will wipe down apartments by hand.
Once the cleanup is complete, the resident could determine how aggressive the follow-up
testing should be. Those residents who request the most aggressive asbestos testing - in
which a 1-horsepower leaf blower will stir up any remaining dust - must leave their
apartments for 48 hours. Housing assistance will be available through the Red Cross.
Some environmental advocates have asked for testing to be conducted before the cleanup as
well as afterward, concerned about the accuracy of a visual inspection. Some critics have
also called for all apartments below Canal St. to be cleaned on a mandatory basis because
of fears that one contaminated apartment could cross-contaminate a cleaned apartment.
Cop can sue city on Ground Zero ills
, By Helen Peterson, Wednesday, August 7th, 2002State Supreme Court Justice Michael Stallman balked at the city's argument that Police Officer Anna Taha's late notice kept it from properly investigating her claim.
Taha, 37, of Queens, said the city failed to provide her with proper respiratory gear and that she developed lung damage and breathing problems as a result.
Taha worked at Ground Zero from Sept. 13 to Dec. 2.
More than 1,000 cops and firefighters have filed similar notices preserving their right to sue the city.
Most of those notices were filed within the 90-day deadline, but hundreds more are expected to be filed, lawyers said.
"It's the right decision," said Robert Wolff, Taha's attorney, of Stallman's ruling.
A spokeswoman for the city said it is unlikely to appeal the decision.
Asbestos Shock Rocks Stuy HS, By Carl Campanile, NY Post, August 8, 2002
New environmental tests show the upholstery in the Stuyvesant HS auditorium is contaminated with asbestos - as much as 25 times what experts consider acceptable.
Some parents expressed alarm because many events were held in the auditorium when students returned last October following the attacks on the Twin Towers.
Stuyvesant Parents Association consultant Howard Bader called the newly discovered level of asbestos "extremely high," and added that it "raises concern that the seats are contaminated."
The testing, which was done for the Parents Association, found one sample with 60,000 asbestos structures per centimeter - while another came back with a whopping 2.5 million reading.
Experts say a reading of 100,000 requires an emergency clean-up, while lower levels, such as 60,000, are still a cause for concern.
Bader insisted all protocols for asbestos removal should be followed at the school.
Schools Chancellor Harold Levy's office said rugs will be removed and seat upholstery replaced before Stuyvesant reopens next month.
"We'll do it in a responsible manner," said Deputy Chancellor David Klasfeld.
Klasfeld also said prior air testing found no traces of asbestos, and stressed asbestos is not a danger unless it's airborne.
But parents are skeptical.
"We're furious. I can't say how many times our kids were in the auditorium this year," said Paul Edwards, spokesman for the group Concerned Stuyvesant Parents.
David Ross, chairman of the Parents Association's health committee, said the Board of Education should also test surfaces in other parts of the school, such as the library.
"It's a cause for some concern. We should at least look elsewhere," said Ross.
He said he was confident school officials will remedy the problem before Stuyvesant reopens on Sept. 5.
he federal Environmental Protection
Agency announced plans yesterday to test for dioxins and toxic metals in a sampling of
Lower Manhattan apartments whose interiors were coated with ash and dust from the World
Trade Center's collapse.
The agency said the testing, along with the asbestos cleanup and testing program announced in May, will be the largest cleanup in its history.
"We've talked to scientists and experts and doctors and community groups and tenants' groups," an agency official said. "We feel — and scientists agree — that we need to act now and not spend months or years studying the situation."
The agency plans to test 250 apartments for dioxins and toxic metals like lead and mercury. Those apartments will be randomly chosen from the approximately 3,600 apartments whose residents have requested asbestos cleaning and testing. An additional 1,000 apartments will be tested for asbestos at the residents' request and cleaned only if their levels exceed federal standards.
The agency said that if tests indicated unacceptably high levels of dioxins and toxic metals, the apartments would be cleaned and an expansion of tests and cleanups would be considered. The cost of a laboratory analysis of dioxins is three times that of an asbestos analysis.
All testing and cleaning should begin in September, the agency said. All residents south of Canal and Pike Streets in Lower Manhattan are eligible, as are landlords who want their buildings' common areas — lobbies, halls and corridors — cleaned and tested. The E.P.A. is accepting requests until Sept. 3.
The E.P.A.'s May announcement of an asbestos cleanup program was an abrupt reversal of the federal government's earlier stance that cleanups of private indoor spaces were the responsibility of residents and landlords. Tenants' groups and politicians had demanded that the E.P.A and other federal agencies take on the job. But now that it has, only a relatively few residents in the approximately 20,000 eligible apartments have asked for the work.
The reasons for refusing run the "whole gamut," the agency official said. "Some say, `It's very clean, I know it is,' " she said. "Others don't trust the government to be inside their homes."
The agency says ordinary home cleaning cannot remove asbestos, toxic metals or dioxins. Specialized cleaning agents and vacuums are required. Crevices or wider areas with thick coatings of dust will be isolated with plastic shields and samples taken for testing. Particularly dusty apartments will be cordoned off and the residents moved out until the cleaning is completed. Afterward, the air will be tested.
EPA Details Manhattan Cleanup Plan
, By Shannon McCaffrey, Associated Press, August 7, 2002WASHINGTON (AP) — Almost a year after the World Trade Center
collapse coated much of lower Manhattan in asbestos-laced dust and debris, federal
environmental officials on Tuesday announced plans to clean and test up to 38,000
residences.
Environmental Protection Agency officials said they agreed to the unprecedented indoor
cleanup, free for any downtown resident who wants it, mostly to calm lingering fears. The
EPA and other government agencies have downplayed any health risk from the dust, saying
tests have shown the asbestos did not reach hazardous levels.
Critics have complained that the EPA has taken too long to initiate the cleanup and that
residents and others have already been exposed to the asbestos for 11 months. They
attacked the plan Tuesday as inadequate.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., called it ``late in coming.''
``Many questions about the process still remain unanswered,'' she said.
Samples of the dust that settled after the trade center collapse Sept. 11 show varying
amounts of asbestos, fiberglass and concrete powder.
EPA officials on Tuesday would not place a price tag on the cleanup effort, because they
do not know how many residents will take advantage of it. Industry officials said
professional asbestos abatement could cost an average of $4,000 per apartment.
New York City officials will review the EPA plan and put contracts for the work out to
bid. Eight contractors will perform the work, which could begin as soon as next month and
last about one year.
Under the EPA plan, a crew would enter a residence and determine which level of cleanup is
appropriate, given the amount of dust and other debris.
Once the cleanup is complete, the resident could determine how aggressive the follow-up
testing should be. Those residents who seek the most aggressive asbestos testing — in
which a leaf blower will stir up any remaining dust — must leave their apartments for
48 hours. Housing assistance will be available through the Red Cross.
Dr. Marjorie Clarke of the 911 Environmental Action Group, criticized the plan for not
testing for other toxins, like PCBs and mercury.
``They're being very simplistic about this and not basing it on science,'' Clarke said.
Hundreds of workers have reported respiratory ailments and other problems after cleaning
dust-laden offices and apartments soon after Sept. 11. Those laborers face a slightly
elevated risk of asbestos-related cancer in coming decades, scientists said.
The cleanup is available to those who live south of Canal, Allen and Pike streets.
Businesses are not eligible for the federal cleanup.
Help's out there, but who knew? , NY Daily News, 8/6/2
A federal-state program to protect people who live in the city from asbestos by reimbursing them for air purifiers, vacuums and air conditioners is so hush-hush that most people don't know about it. As a result, though 3 million New York City households are eligible to get up to $1,600, only about 1% - 31,000 - have applied.
The subsidies are part of the post-9/11 cleanup to eliminate asbestos that might be nestling in household dust or sucked into air conditioners. State Labor Department officials administering the grants have sponsored no public information campaign about them.
Officials give conflicting answers about whether approval is needed to purchase items. Brian Sogol of the office of state Sen. Thomas Duane (D-Manhattan) learned that an Individual and Family Grant helpline is always busy because of lack of staff.
New Yorkers, who may risk asbestos poisoning, have a right to know about these grants.
Environmental Protection Agency spokeswoman Mary Mears explained, "When the Trade Centers collapsed, tremendous dust was produced. We took street samples, and about a third contained asbestos. We feel the prudent thing is to get rid of as much of this dust as possible to reduce potential risk."
High-efficiency particle arresting - HEPA - vacuum cleaners filter out dust and asbestos. They remove 99.97% of harmful particles, including dust mites, mold spores, pet dander, allergens and even anthrax spores.
Should one worry 10 months after the event?
"If you have asbestos in your home, it can get kicked up. It's the buildup over long periods that counts," Mears said. "The risk is low, but if it's a simple matter of getting rid of the dust, let's get rid of the dust."
The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the state will reimburse households in the city up to $500 for HEPA air purifiers, $300 for extra filters, $300 for the vacuums and $500 for replacing or repairing air conditioners affected by dust or debris or damaged in the attack on the twin towers.
Special arrangements may be made for people lacking funds up front. Three-quarters of the subsidy comes from the $21.5 billion federal 9/11 disaster aid package, the rest from the state.
To apply, call FEMA at (800) 462-9029 through September. For information, see www.fema.gov. The grant helpline is (866) 346-0348. Also, turn in old air conditioners by Sept. 20 for a $75 bounty if the new model meets high-efficiency standards. Call (877) 697-6278 or log on to www.getenergysmart.org for information.
You'd think New Yorkers would be signing up in droves. They would if the state only told them about it.
You won't believe this !!
Youth Group Helps Re-Plant Garden Destroyed On 9/11
AUGUST 07TH, 2002
Some children with green
thumbs worked in Lower Manhattan Wednesday to re-plant a patch of Chambers Street
destroyed in the collapse of the World Trade Center.
The volunteers come from “Manhattan Youth,” a community organization based
downtown.
NY1’s Rebecca Spitz filed the following report:
What they lack in expertise, one group of kids makes up in enthusiasm. Wednesday morning,
they started replanting a small stretch of Chambers Street with abandon.
The garden patch is three blocks from the World Trade Center site, and was trampled after
the collapse. Now, these volunteers - who either live or go to school in the neighborhood
- are helping bring it back.
“I remember when we first started here there were tons of weeds, and tons of dirt and
soil and bad soot from the World Trade Center, I guess, that was blown over here from when
it fell down," said volunteer Anthony Pupello. Replanting this makes the area back to
what it was, to make it look a little bit nicer."
The kids are part of Manhattan Youth, a community organization for the area south of
Chambers Street. This garden has been their turf for three years.
"I had to cut down all the tree roots - the ones that were getting really thick on
the outside of the vine,” said volunteer Elliot Hendler. “Then we had to turn
the soil and we also had to dig out a line so we could put the fence in."
The project's organizer, Bob Townley, says replanting the garden has practical and
symbolic significance.
"Where there was no life, there'll be life again, and it's a tribute to the community
and how it wants to rebuild and revive itself to where it was," said Townley.
Khamari Young didn't mind getting dirty for the cause.
“I like knowing that I can make a difference in my community, and by planting it just
makes everything look more beautiful," said Young.
The kids will maintain the garden through the summer, then hand the project over to middle
schoolers in the fall.
Hiroshima Pol Knocks U.S.
, Tuesday, August 6th, 2002, Associated PressAkiba, in remarks to thousands of people who gathered at Peace Memorial Park to mark the 57th anniversary of the world's first atomic bomb attack, suggested that Washington's policies in the post-Sept. 11 world were misguided.
"The United States government has no right to force Pax Americana on the rest of us, or to unilaterally determine the fate of the world," Akiba said.
At 8:15 a.m. - the minute on Aug. 6, 1945, when the bomb exploded after being dropped from a U.S. B-29 warplane - a bell tolled and more than 45,000 survivors, residents and dignitaries from around the world bowed their heads for 60 seconds of silence.
The bomb killed about 140,000 people and sickened hundreds of thousands more in Hiroshima, 430 miles southwest of Tokyo. Three days later, an atomic bomb killed 70,000 in Nagasaki. Japan surrendered Aug. 15, 1945, ending World War II.
Akiba called on countries to scrap weapons of mass destruction, even as nuclear-armed India and Pakistan remained on a war footing.
Nearly 11 months after the World Trade Center collapsed in a caustic cloud of black smoke, the Mount Sinai Hospital officially opened a federally funded clinic yesterday to treat thousands of rescue and recovery workers exposed to toxic substances at the disaster site.
But Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who helped secure the initial $12 million for the medical screening program, renewed her call for President George W. Bush to release an additional $90 million for the initiative.
Although the preliminary $12 million will cover free health exams for about 8,500 rescue workers and police officers, health officials believe about 30,000 people volunteered in cleanup at Ground Zero and the Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island.
Clinton (D-N.Y.) said if the supplemental emergency funding is not approved "thousands of people are going to be left out of what is one of the most important public and occupational health efforts ever undertaken in this country."
Bush has until Aug. 31 to decide whether to approve a $5-billion emergency spending package, which includes the $90 million for the World Trade Center health program.
"The president will be in New York next month on Sept. 11," Clinton said during a news conference with health and labor leaders at the hospital. "If he signs this emergency designation, he will be able to look people in the eye, and tell them help is on the way."
John Graham, who worked as an emergency medical technician in lower Manhattan, said he began experiencing respiratory pains immediately after the attacks. After being examined, Graham, 40, was told he was suffering from burned lungs, asthma and reactive airways disease. He now takes steroids and uses an inhaler medicated with albuterol.
"My life is changed. I need the albuterol in the morning as soon as I wake up. If I come in contact with smoke, I start to cough uncontrollably," Graham said. "I'm getting better. But I'm concerned about my future. They're saying the rescue dogs are dying. So, how much time do I have left? 10 years? Six years?"
Dr. Robin HErbert, co-director of the World Trade Center program, said after the attacks hundreds of workers like Graham came to the hospital's occupational health clinic suffering from sinusitis, laryngitis, bronchitis and new cases of asthma.
Although the medical program officially opened yesterday, Herbert said the clinic actually started seeing patients on July 8. So far, doctors have examined 129 people at the clinic on Fifth Avenue at 101st Street in East Harlem. Another 500 workers and volunteers have been scheduled for medical exams this month.
Herbert said of the first 40 workers and volunteers examined about 50 percent are still suffering from respiratory problems.
For more information about the World Trade Center medical screening program or to inquire about an appointment, call: 1-888-702-0630.
Cleanup Bids for WTC-Area Apts.
By Celeste Katz, NY Daily News, Tuesday, August 6th, 2002Tens of thousands of homes surrounding the disaster site have received mailings notifying them free testing and cleanup of their apartments are available
So far, however, only 3,000 households have requested cleaning and testing. Another 1,000 have asked for testing alone.
The federal Environmental Protection Agency is running the massive cleanup of dust that could contain hazardous asbestos, dioxin and metals.
Contractors will use special vacuums to clean floors, walls, furniture and even books for tiny particles. Workers also will wipe down apartments by hand.
The total cleanup bill, to be footed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, is not yet clear. But the price tag for a single apartment is expected to range from $3,000 to as much as $8,000, officials said.
A hotline for people concerned about contamination, (877) 796-5471, is open until Sept. 3, but that deadline will likely be extended, officials said.
The EPA bowed to pressure from infuriated tenants around Ground Zero in May, promising to clean and test apartments for asbestos. The agency maintains there is no major health hazard in the area.
9/11 Survivors Feel Duty to Kin
, By Emily Gest, NY Daily News, Sunday, August 4th, 2002She knows that there are 168 empty chairs in Oklahoma City marking the lives lost there in the 1995 bombing. That there are 30 acres in Hiroshima's Peace City dedicated to those killed by the atom bomb. And that a black granite wall on a Long Island beach is chiseled with the 230 names of the victims of TWA Flight 800.
She knows these things because securing an appropriate memorial to her husband, Michael - and the 2,822 others killed in the World Trade Center attacks - has kept her going these past few months.
"This is my mission," said Iken, 32, of Riverdale, the Bronx. "This is the way I'm dealing with my grief. I was blessed for two years to have that man in my life."
Iken is among a new breed of activists who have transformed the pain of losing a loved one on Sept. 11 into a shared quest to accomplish something lasting.
They are homemakers, electricians, insurance executives, retirees and teachers who have joined forces to change laws guiding building construction and put their stamp on redevelopment plans for downtown.
They've formed nonprofit groups, created Web sites and fired off newsletters to press their concerns. They're skilled at dealing with the media and are on a first-name basis with Mayor Bloomberg, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Gov. Pataki.
As the months have passed since the attacks, the relatives have become budding experts on specialized topics.
Sense of duty
"Somewhere along the way we had the opportunity and the ability to do something," said Kathy Ashton, 47, of Queens, who lost her son Tommy.
Ashton, a medical-malpractice investigator, has devoted countless hours to family meetings, chasing updates on DNA identification from the city medical examiner and pressing redevelopment officials to honor the families' demand that new buildings not rise where the towers once stood.
Beverly Eckert, an insurance executive whose husband, Sean Rooney, was trapped in the south tower, has learned a lot about improving building safety and design. She has testified before a federal agency investigating why the towers fell, and returned to Washington last week to urge senators to create a bipartisan commission to probe all aspects of the attacks.
"I know a lot about how my husband died and when," said Eckert, of Stamford, Conn., who was on the phone with Sean when the floor collapsed. "I'm able to personalize the story and tie it to failures of procedures and the design of the building."
The two dozen or so men and women who represent the different family groups weren't always so involved. Some thought their civic responsibilities ended in the voting booth. But in the weeks after the attacks, they found they had to unite to get the answers they wanted about the recovery of human remains, charitable donations and, later, efforts to memorialize the dead.
"Two weeks after the attacks I knew I had to do something," Iken said.
Fearing developers would rebuild on the ashes of the dead, she began talking with planners who worked on memorials in Washington and Oklahoma City.
She is a frequent guest on TV news shows, pressing her case for a dignified memorial that respects the boundaries of death - the footprints of the towers, the WTC Marriott and the so-called bathtub retaining wall that circles the site and keeps out the Hudson River.
'Best therapy'
Bill Doyle, a retired stockbroker, has helped more than 100 families navigate charitable groups to obtain financial help. From his home on Staten Island, he has worked out a plan he hopes will cover health-care costs for families who lost their insurance.
"When you see you're helping so many people - it's probably been the best therapy for me. I think this is my counseling," said Doyle, 55, who lost his son Joey.
Days after the attacks, Tom Roger, who lost his daughter Jean, a flight attendant, spoke out about lapses in airline security. A construction company executive, Roger has written a mission statement on behalf of the family groups spelling out their wishes to the Lower Manhattan Development Corp.
"I've got a responsibility to represent a lot of other families unable, incapable or unwilling to become directly involved," said Roger, 54, of Longmeadow, Mass.
Experts say it's healthy for the relatives to channel their grief and helplessness into action - for now.
"If it's going on a year from now, that might be bad," said Dr. Alan Manevitz, a psychiatrist at New York-Presbyterian Hospital who volunteered counseling workers at Ground Zero. He warned that it might prolong the grief process.
And their involvement only helps so much. Nearly a year later, relatives still find it nearly impossible to talk about their lost loved ones without crying.
Sally Regenhard, of Co-op City in the Bronx, who lost her son Christian, a firefighter, has quit her two jobs at nursing homes to devote herself full-time to her passion - improving skyscraper safety.
"As parents, our lives have been destroyed," said Regenhard, fighting back tears. "Our only reason to exist and go on is to change the system."