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Little Evidence Of Toxins In EPA Tests Near WTC Site The Environmental Protection Agency released preliminary results late last month from its voluntary testing program for residences in the neighborhood of the World Trade Center site. The sampling, which tested for asbestos, lead, man-made vitreous fibers, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in 53 apartments and the common areas of nine buildings within 1500 feet of the Trade Center site, found that the vast majority of sampled residences did not exceed safe levels of the contaminants. Only three out of 1,142 asbestos samples exceeded safe levels, and while 71 out of 904 lead samplings found excessive levels, EPA spokeswoman Mary Mears said this was most likely due to the prevalence of lead paint in New York City buildings. Mears said the agency is not drawing definitive conclusions from the results because it does not meet the standards of a scientific study. “At the same time it does give us some information,” Mears said. “It confirms our initial impression that the internal contamination from Sept. 11 is minimal. But we are going to continue with the testing program, working outwards from the site.” All told, 272 residents and 25 building owners in Lower Manhattan have asked to take part in the EPA testing program. But some community and labor representatives maintain that the EPA’s data is useless. Community Board 1 member Catherine McVay-Hughes, who sat on the advisory panel that roundly criticized the EPA’s testing regime two years ago, said she is not reassured by the testing data. “The EPA’s test and clean plan was controversial, and so are its results,” she said. “I’m not surprised by the results just because of the way the plan was structured. But I’m certainly not reassured.” Micki Siegel De Hernandez, a health and safety director for the Communication Workers of America who also sat on the EPA advisory panel, agreed. “We knew from the way the testing was designed that it was guaranteed that they would find very little,” she said. “Workplaces were not included in the testing, so we have no information about the safety of workplaces.” De Hernandez said even the residential testing program is flawed, focusing on testing areas that are likely to have already been cleaned while ignoring the areas most likely to be contaminated. “This program was geared to find nothing. It allows the EPA to walk away,” she said. “That’s troublesome for New York, but it’s especially bad if it becomes the model going forward for dealing with future contamination disasters.”
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