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Health and Environmental Effects of World Trade Center Exposures

The overall goals of World Trade Center (WTC)-related research activities at Columbia's Center for Environmental Health in Northern Manhattan are to place WTC-related contaminant levels into perspective and to identify compositional tracers of WTC contaminant fluxes that can be used to identify and quantify the transport and deposition of WTC emissions.

Collaboration with the NIEHS Center at Johns Hopkins on exposure of teamsters who transported debris from the site for disposal led to the proposal to develop a database of both pre- and post-September 11 contaminant levels in NYC to provide perspective on whether certain contaminants were significantly elevated above levels observed prior to the WTC attacks. Efforts will be made to ensure that this database is accessible to researchers, government agencies, and the public. Little to no data prior to September 11 exists for certain WTC-related contaminants such as brominated diphenyl ethers and brominated dioxins/furans. In collaboration with Hopkins, additional air sampling and analysis was carried out after the completion of clean-up efforts, as a proxy for pre-September 11 base line data for lower Manhattan.

High Volume Air Sampling

Dr. Chillrud and colleagues collected samples from five high volume area samplers between October 11, 2001 and January 20, 2002. A limited number of these samples were analyzed for chlorinated and brominated dioxins and furans, PCBs and brominated diphenyl ethers. Sub-samples of the analyzed filters and additional air filters have been archived for future analyses.

Archived air filters and settled dust samples are being analyzed for additional analytes (trace organics and metals). Additional settled dust samples will be analyzed for a suite of parameters including saturated organics, PAHs, and brominated and chlorinated hydrocarbons). Additional Teamsters samples were collected in April 2002 and additional area samples after completion of clean up efforts, as a proxy for base line samples and analyzed by the same methods. Additionally, researchers will develop profiles or fingerprints of different types of ground zero emissions (i.e. settled dust vs. airborne emissions of combustion products). These multi-contaminant profiles could potentially include fiberglass content, elemental ratios, congener specific patterns, etc.

WTC – ITEA Database

Dr. Chillrud's team is establishing a database of both pre- and post-September 11th exposure data that is web-based, with the goal of making available as much of the data from various agencies in a usable format and easily accessible to researchers, government agencies, and the public.

Intensive ambient air quality sampling and some personal exposure assessment for the area in and around the WTC disaster site has been conducted since the beginning of October 2001. The post September 11 air quality monitoring effort has been carried out by a range of agencies including the U.S. EPA, NYCDEP, NYC DOH, NYS DOL, OSHA and NIOSH. Among the contaminants measured are PM10, PM2.5, asbestos, Freon, volatile organic compounds, metals, dioxins and furans, polychlorinated biphenyls, and carbon monoxide. Sample collection methods range from continuous sampling at several stationary monitoring locations several blocks from the disaster site to grab samples collected in the debris pile.

Public Dissemination of Database: Community Outreach and Education

The primary goal of the COEP effort is to make the database of air quality accessible to the public, including community groups and individuals who may not be familiar with the Internet and to create a toolbox or short course enabling people to understand the pre- and post-September 11 data and to place it in context.

Developing a database of air quality data will serve two important goals: one is to provide researchers with access to complete and organized data on exposure assessment. The other goal is to provide the data to the public, in this case a wide spectrum of residents, workers, the media, and other stakeholders in Lower Manhattan--in a format that is accessible and comprehensible. Our public communication strategy will emphasize that this project is intended only to summarize air quality data collected pre- and post-September 11th, and it is not intended to provide a guide to health risks. We are defining the affected communities broadly, to include: residents, workers/labor (involved with cleanup and rebuilding and working in the area), elected officials, government agencies, scientists, researchers, journalists, students at local schools (including community colleges) parents, teachers and other workers at schools, and medical personnel.

Written summaries of the data, accompanied by contextual information comparing pre- and post-September 11th data will be provided. The focus will be on the following tools for public communications: 1) Written summary of data on air quality. This will be 10-20 pages long, and will include the following: a. Pollutant by pollutant data summary: mean, median, range time series; b. Comparisons to regulatory standards and to health benchmarks, to pollutant levels prior to September 11 and to average urban levels; 2) 'Short Course' (~3 hours) in understanding the database.