Air Quality questions

Feb. 29, 2008: Mike Weiss' Questions for Interviews:

The focus of the class investigation is to, broadly, find out what has changed since 9/11. To relate this to air quality issues, my first step was to:
1. Define exactly what was the air quality problem at 9/11, and
2. Reveal how this has been addressed (or not)

1. The air quality problem from 9/11 is that after the disaster, approximately 6000 people developed serious health issues as the result of being unnecessarily exposed to hazardous air. This happened because of the disorganization of the government agencies responsible for monitoring air quality and broadcasting alerts.

2. To investigate whether the government agencies responsible for air quality monitoring and alerting have gotten more organized to handle both a repeat 9/11-type disaster or the current building boom air quality threats in lower Manhattan, I have interviewed, or am in the process of interviewing, the following people:

Robert Spencer, WTC Community Labor Coalition: He gave me a bunch of leads, explained how the original plan for the demolition of the Deutsche Bank building was not communicated with FDNY, how his group repeatedly called for a separation between the “remediation” contractors (those who remove the contaminated 9/11 dust) and the demolition contractors. This provided one of the early blueprints for how to maintain safe air quality in rebuilding after a contamination-related disaster.

Paul Stein, PEF (public employee federal) Division 199 (“local”) works for the NYS Dept. of Health in an office at 90 Church Street, and is a union representative. He was very active in getting his building, 90 Church, cleaned after 9/11 but knows that most buildings still remain dirty. He places the blame for the 9/11 air-control issues on the Federal EPA for not actively becoming the necessary central authority at the scene. Since he has dealt with air quality issues over the years since 9/11, I asked him for help in unraveling the myriad government agencies involved. He told me, “you’re confused? A lot of people are confused.”

Dr. Paul Lioy, UMDNJ: very active in occupational health issues and with Dr. Philip Landrigan at Mount Sinai Medical Center, wrote a few papers on 9/11 health issues. He forcefully contradicted Paul Stein’s assessment, saying the problem was not with EPA (“why does everyone lay that on their doorstep?”) but rather with OSHA, since most of the effected people were workers. He asked me to read his papers before granting me a second interview, which I am doing now.

Dave Newman, NYCOSH (New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health). Newman was part of EPA’s WTC Expert Technical Review Panel which in 2005 submitted reports about 9/11 air quality handling procedures. He left there, joined NYCOSH, and in 2007 presented a report to the U.S. Senate about EPA’s response during 9/11 (“EPA’S Response to 9/11 and Lessons Learned for Future Emergency Preparedness.”). I told him I was looking for any air quality procedures/regulations that have been changed since 9/11. “What did you find,” he asked me. When I told him I didn’t find too much yet, he said, “there aren’t any.” Newman suggested that I read the Federal “NRP” (National Response Plan) which was in place before 9/11 and lays out the government chain of command/responsibilities during a 9/11-type emergency. He wants me to understand how this works before explaining to me, in a second interview, what went wrong during 9/11 and also, why nothing is being done to correct this now.
Thomas Kunkel, Director, LMCCC (Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center). After 9/11, NYS set up the LMDC (Lower Manhattan Development Corp.) as a way to channel the $10 BILLION dollars in Federal grants to redevelop lower Manhattan. After distributing this money, LMDC disbanded and turned over the reins of State monitoring of lower Manhattan construction to the newly formed LMCCC. LMCCC’s web site states that it is involved with monitoring air conditions in lower Manhattan, but it is very confusing how they do this, how they coordinate their results with the Federal EPA, and most importantly, are they in fact officially mandated as responsible for monitoring air quality and issuing alerts. As an agency charged with coordinating construction, it would be reasonable to be suspicious of their air monitoring/alerting credibility. I have tried to speak to Thomas Kunkel, LMCCC Director, who requested that I go through this office of media affairs. They asked me to submit a list of questions, which I immediately did. They are still reviewing my request for an interview.

I would also like to try and interview someone at EPA (their “Region 2” office is located on Broadway near City Hall), as well as someone from OSHA. I would especially like to get an understanding of the significance of last week’s big OSHA fines to the Deutsche Bank contractors, and whether this signals a new era of OSHA regulatory control.