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American Morning

America Recovers: Toxins at Ground Zero One By-product of World Trade Center Attacks

Aired October 29, 2001 - 10:43   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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: One by-product of the World Trade Center attacks: the toxins at the ground zero site. Dioxins, PCB's, benzene, lead, and chromium have all been detected there.

Let's talk more about it with our medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, for a closer look at the health issues related there.

Good morning to you.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill.

HEMMER: You just got off the phone with some folks up in New York City. What are they telling you?

GUPTA: I talked to the chief lung doctor for the New York City Fire Department. As you can imagine, having seen all the pictures, as we have for the last several weeks, of all the smoke, all the small particles in the air, they are very concerned about some of the health effects, specifically the effects on the lungs, the breathing. What he told me was that up to 40 percent of the 11,000 fireworkers that did respond to this in some shape or form have had trouble requiring medical care. It has been as low key as a cough, requiring inhalants, all the way up to significant respiratory problems requiring ventilation.

So a lot of respiratory problems. We are going to begin screening everybody, 170 fireworkers a day for the next 60 days. We're going to look at their lung functions and their heart functions, and draw their blood, to look for some of the heavy metals you were talking about, Bill -- the dioxins, the PCBs, and things like that, to see if any of those things are also present, to try and make sure they can jump on top of it as quickly as possible.

HEMMER: Is there a reason given as to why it's so prevalent with firefighters, or are we seeing it in other workers as well?

GUPTA: This doctor has clearly taken care of firefighters, and the firefighters, especially the fist responders, were ones who were either there at the collapse or within the next few days.

I did ask him about the rest of the citizens, the citizens who are around the area, who live there, work there, things like that. And they're certainly seeing their own doctors as well. Dr. David Prezant, whom I spoke with, does take care of the firefighters, but it wouldn't be surprising to see these same things in some other people around there.

HEMMER: Doctor, were things burning inside that area and possibly still burning today that were not anticipated in terms of effects on the human body, or are we still learning about that also?

GUPTA: It's very interesting. The EPA has certainly been doing tests all along, measuring all sorts of things. The thing that springs to most people's minds right away is asbestos, because of all we know about asbestos and its relationship to lung cancer. The EPA continues to report that the levels of asbestos are very small.

I talked to a few different doctors about that; what they told me was that the asbestos, while it may have been present in the building, and some of the folks in that area may have gotten some asbestos into their system, it's kind of like a nonsmoker smoking a few packs of cigarettes all in one day. Does your risk of lung cancer go up? Yes. Is it significant? Probably not. Asbestos is usually something that you need to be exposed to over a long period of time.

HEMMER: And we don't know, at this point, if it is permanent or not, correct?.

GUPTA: That's correct, we don't.

HEMMER: Sanjay, thanks -- Dr. Sanjay Gupta watching this.

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