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Ground Zero Air Quality Study

Aired September 10, 2003 - 13:50   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Day after day at Ground Zero, rescue workers plowed through the dust and debris. Now many are wondering why they weren't better protected. Mounting evidence suggests that workers who sacrificed so much effort to clean the debris at Ground Zero may pay a very high price.
CNN science correspondent Ann Kellan joining us with the details.

Some of the worst pollution ever recorded.

ANN KELLAN, CNN SCIENCE CORRESPONDENT: Ever, ever recorded.

This is what we're now being told about how dangerous it was around Ground Zero in the weeks and months that followed 9/11. The evidence comes from monitors that were set up one mile from Ground Zero. Researchers who flew in from the University of California says that those monitors recorded the highest concentrations of pollution ever taken at any one area at one time. They say these levels, if inhaled continuously, will most likely shorten people's lives.

According to the study, as rescue workers at Ground Zero worked for months clearing the giant debris pile, it was burning and spewing poisons into the air. The dust was thick of burning computers, glass, paper, building components, insulation, furniture. The white masks that you that see these people are wearing are not respirators.

Now researcher at U.C. Davis, they set up monitors, and they were studying air quality a mile from Ground Zero, but they describe the condition at Ground Zero as brutal. Lead researcher Thomas Kayhill, he also studied air quality from Gulf War oil fires, Asian dust storms, volcanoes. Now he states the fuming World Trade Center was, quote, "a chemical factory that exhaled pollutants in dangerous forms that could penetrate deep into the lungs of workers at Ground Zero."

Of the 8,000 air samples taken, researchers have never seen the amount of fine and coarse particles in the air they found certain days after 9/11, particles of metals. These metals can irritate and interfere with the lungs. Acids, including sulfuric acid, that can also damage the lungs. Researchers say the workers were also inhaling fine particles of glass, and that can get into the bloodstream and over a long period of time impact the heart.

COLLINS: So who is actually impacted by this pollution? You would think it was everybody just right there.

KELLAN: And that's the good news. The people who were around New York, according to Kayhill, were not affected, because the pollution rose, blew over the area. Except for three days in September and five days in October, the weather conditions blew the pollution back, and coincidentally, they got reporters from people complaining and complaining about the pollution and the air quality of those days.

Now the bad news, according to the research, is people working around that burning pile. They were inhaling particles day after day. For three months, that pile burned. And Kayhill said they probably suffered permanent damage.

COLLINS: Permanent damage, so we're not talking short-term damage.

KELLAN: No, it's both. You have the coarse particles in the air, and what that happens is you get respiratory, you have allergy problems. And with the fine particles in the air, that's the long- term particles that stay in your bloodstream and can impact you later in life. He actually says it can actually age your organs sooner.

COLLINS: I expect we'll be hearing from the EPA on this.

KELLAN: Yes, and pretty soon, on CNN, yes.

COLLINS: All right, we'll check with you when we hear from them. Thanks so much, Ann Kellan. Appreciate it.

KELLAN: You're welcome.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired September 10, 2003 - 13:50   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Day after day at Ground Zero, rescue workers plowed through the dust and debris. Now many are wondering why they weren't better protected. Mounting evidence suggests that workers who sacrificed so much effort to clean the debris at Ground Zero may pay a very high price.
CNN science correspondent Ann Kellan joining us with the details.

Some of the worst pollution ever recorded.

ANN KELLAN, CNN SCIENCE CORRESPONDENT: Ever, ever recorded.

This is what we're now being told about how dangerous it was around Ground Zero in the weeks and months that followed 9/11. The evidence comes from monitors that were set up one mile from Ground Zero. Researchers who flew in from the University of California says that those monitors recorded the highest concentrations of pollution ever taken at any one area at one time. They say these levels, if inhaled continuously, will most likely shorten people's lives.

According to the study, as rescue workers at Ground Zero worked for months clearing the giant debris pile, it was burning and spewing poisons into the air. The dust was thick of burning computers, glass, paper, building components, insulation, furniture. The white masks that you that see these people are wearing are not respirators.

Now researcher at U.C. Davis, they set up monitors, and they were studying air quality a mile from Ground Zero, but they describe the condition at Ground Zero as brutal. Lead researcher Thomas Kayhill, he also studied air quality from Gulf War oil fires, Asian dust storms, volcanoes. Now he states the fuming World Trade Center was, quote, "a chemical factory that exhaled pollutants in dangerous forms that could penetrate deep into the lungs of workers at Ground Zero."

Of the 8,000 air samples taken, researchers have never seen the amount of fine and coarse particles in the air they found certain days after 9/11, particles of metals. These metals can irritate and interfere with the lungs. Acids, including sulfuric acid, that can also damage the lungs. Researchers say the workers were also inhaling fine particles of glass, and that can get into the bloodstream and over a long period of time impact the heart.

COLLINS: So who is actually impacted by this pollution? You would think it was everybody just right there.

KELLAN: And that's the good news. The people who were around New York, according to Kayhill, were not affected, because the pollution rose, blew over the area. Except for three days in September and five days in October, the weather conditions blew the pollution back, and coincidentally, they got reporters from people complaining and complaining about the pollution and the air quality of those days.

Now the bad news, according to the research, is people working around that burning pile. They were inhaling particles day after day. For three months, that pile burned. And Kayhill said they probably suffered permanent damage.

COLLINS: Permanent damage, so we're not talking short-term damage.

KELLAN: No, it's both. You have the coarse particles in the air, and what that happens is you get respiratory, you have allergy problems. And with the fine particles in the air, that's the long- term particles that stay in your bloodstream and can impact you later in life. He actually says it can actually age your organs sooner.

COLLINS: I expect we'll be hearing from the EPA on this.

KELLAN: Yes, and pretty soon, on CNN, yes.

COLLINS: All right, we'll check with you when we hear from them. Thanks so much, Ann Kellan. Appreciate it.

KELLAN: You're welcome.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com