Asbestos & September 11th
On September 11, 2001, the world watched in shock and horror as terrorists hijacked and crashed four commercial jetliners in a carefully coordinated attack on the United States. The first two planes hit the two World Trade Center towers, while another targeted the Pentagon. An attempt to crash a fourth plane into the U.S. Capitol was thwarted by passengers before it crashed into a field in Pennsylvania, killing everyone on board.
While a tragic loss of life occurred in all four incidents, the devastation and destruction at the World Trade Center reached catastrophic proportions. In the end, 2,992 lives were reported to have been lost on 9/11. But that number doesn’t account for the health crisis and toll on human life that unfolded in the months and years following the attack.
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The Asbestos – 9/11 Link
When construction began on the twin towers of the World Trade Center in 1968, workers fireproofed the buildings with a sprayed-on slurry mixture of asbestos and cement. The New York City Council banned this practice in 1971, and some attempts at removal and abatement of asbestos followed. Unfortunately, hundreds of tons of the material had already been applied, and most of it remained in place prior to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
When the World Trade Center collapsed on that fateful day, it generated an estimated 1 million tons of dust in a cloud that fell on the 16-acre disaster zone and blew southward, leaving a toxic trail in its wake. In the hours and days after the attack, the cloud of noxious dust found its way through windows and ventilation ducts in more than 2,000 buildings in lower Manhattan.
For months after 9/11, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) continued to insist that the dust contained few contaminants and posed little health risk. Similar reassurances were issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the New York City Department of Health. However, reality told a far different story: extensive testing conducted by the owners of Deutsche Bank revealed high levels of asbestos in the dust that surrounded New York City.
Asbestos-Related Health Problems Affect Thousands Post-9/11
Forty-thousand emergency workers who responded to the scene at Ground Zero were exposed to toxic asbestos dust. Thousands of others--residents, students, and office workers--were also exposed. In many parts of Lower Manhattan, asbestos levels measured higher than those found in Libby, Montana--the well-known site of one of the worst cases of asbestos contamination in U.S. history.
Despite early assurances that the air at Ground Zero was safe, 62% of the people caught in the dust cloud after the collapse suffered ongoing respiratory problems, according to an April 2006 report by the Centers for Disease Control. Another 46% of those who lived or worked in the area but didn't come in contact with the dust cloud also experienced consistent respiratory ailments.
Since the symptoms of mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases usually do not appear until many years after asbestos exposure, the number of cases related to the attacks of 9/11 is not yet known. However, the alarming rate of respiratory problems among those exposed to the air at Ground Zero appears to indicate a health crisis that will continue to unfold for years to come.