Asbestos after September 11, 2001
It has been almost nine years since the unforgettable attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. The impact of the attacks on our country is immeasurable, and we will always feel it. These attacks also had an environmental and health impact on the people of Manhattan as well. When the Twin Towers burned and collapsed, an massive quantities of various toxins were released into the air, including asbestos. The Environmental Protection Agency says that the dust layered the air of Manhattan for days after the attack was composes mainly of ground up construction materials, including concrete, glass, fiberglass, and asbestos.
This is because asbestos was used as fireproofing when the Twin Towers were originally constructed. Construction of the Twin Towers began in 1968. At that time, asbestos bans and warnings were not yet in place. The engineers building the Towers wanted to use spray-on fireproofing on the steel beams that provided the structure for the Towers. This asbestos-containing spray-on fireproofing was used on the first 40 floors of both towers.
Either in anticipation of, or in response to, increasing knowledge about the hazards of asbestos and an eventual ban on the use of asbestos, the steel of the higher floors did not have asbestos-containing fireproofing. It is estimated that about 400 tons of fiber were in the Towers when they collapsed.
In the aftermath of the attacks and the collapse of the towers, there were growing concerns about what would happen to those who inhaled the now airborne asbestos fibers. Those at highest risk for asbestos inhalation were first responders and other rescue and recovery workers. In the earliest hours of the rescue efforts, many of these individuals were not wearing respirators or other breathing equipment.
Federal, state, and city government agencies maintain that the amount of asbestos found in the dust created by the collapse of the Towers was low, and that risk of asbestos exposure and contraction of asbestos-related illness was minimal.
However, less than ten years after the attack, there have already been cases of death due to asbestos-related diseases. Studies of the potential hazard of asbestos-exposure post-September 11, 2001, estimate that more than 110,000 people may have suffered serious exposure. Some of the first responders to the horrific scene on September 11, 2001, developed respiratory problems almost immediately.
In March 2006, the first death due to mesothelioma of an emergency responder occurred. Doctors agree that her exposure to asbestos was a result of her days spent working at the recovery site. This was a very unique case, as typically mesothelioma takes decades to develop in the body. The doctors that treated this victim of mesothelioma opined that this more brief latency period must mean that the victim inhaled an enormous amount of asbestos dust. Because of cases like this, doctors recommend that people who may have been exposed to toxic dust after the fall of the Towers should undergo periodic chest x-rays.
