Human Health Risk Assessment: World Trade Centre Disaster

1. Human Health Risk Assessment:World Trade Centre Disaster Clinton S Young Itza Mendoza Sanchez Vaishali Kushwaha

2. World Trade Centre: Introduction • Seeds of WTC planted after World War II in 1940’s, Dedicated in 1973 • City chose to build the WTC instead of building a new tunnel and large bridge over the Hudson River • 16 acre site in Lower Manhattan • 7 buildings including two 110 storey towers, 8 years of construction

3. World Trade Centre: Facts • To create the 16-acre WTC site, 5 streets were closed off and 164 buildings were demolished • 1.2 million cubic yards of earth was excavated, which was used to create 23.5 acres of Liberty Park along the Hudson River • More than 200,000 tons (68 miles) of steel, which can make three more Brooklyn Bridges • 425,000 cubic yards of concrete, enough to build a 5 foot wide sidewalk from New York City to Washington, D.C. • Combined weight of 2 towers was more than 1.5 million tons • 43,600 windows with over 600,000 square feet of glass window area. • more than 16 miles of staircases. • 60,000 tons of cooling capacity, 49,000 tons of air-conditioning equipment, 239 elevators and 71 escalators • 23,000 fluorescent light bulbs, 12,000 miles of electrical cable, 75,000 telephones maintained by 19,600 miles of cable, 300 computer mainframes • More than 250,000 cans of paint were needed every year for upkeep of the Towers • More than 50,000 people worked in the twin towers and More than 200,000 people - half of them tourists - moved through the buildings each day • $110.3 million in gold and 120.7 million in silver were buried in the rubble • It is the first skyscraper in the world destroyed by terrorists

4. World Trade Centre: Disaster • September 11, 2001, morning 8.45 hijacked 767 commercial jet airplane hit north tower. • 18 minutes later, 9.03am another plane hit south tower • S-tower suffered complete structural collapse 1st and then N-tower collapsed • 47 storey office got damaged, caught fire and later on collapsed totally • All the seven buildings of WTC collapsed and nearby buildings got significantly damaged • About 2800 people died • The fires were fed by more than 91,000 L of jet fuel and went on for days • Airborne dust from the collapse and fumes from burning of the towers blanketed Lower Manhattan with dust containing a complex mixture of PM, asbestos, various metals, dioxins, benzene, glass fiber, PCBs, PAHs, and VOCs

5. World Trade Centre Disaster: Risk Assessment The primary goal of this study is to evaluate the potential risk to health of people working or living in the vicinity of the WTC, immediately after the WTC collapse. The methodology used for the risk assessment • Hazard Identification and Data evaluation • Exposure Assessment • Toxicity Assessment • Risk Characterization

6. World Trade Centre Disaster: Data Collection Air quality in and around New York has been monitored by: • Environmental Protection Agency • New York State Department of Environmental Conservation • New York City Department of Environmental Protection • New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection • Occupational Safety and Health Administration EPA data has been used for the Analysis • samples of air, dust, water, river sediments and drinking water were tested for the presence of pollutants • Data collection from more than 20 fixed air monitors in and around ground zero, regional monitors in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island, and more than 20 fixed air monitors at the Staten Island Landfill (where debris from the search and recovery and excavation operations is shifted) • Data was collected and evaluated for 7 contaminants/contaminant classes: Particulate matter (PM) Metals (lead, chromium, and nickel) Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) Dioxins volatile organic compounds (VOCs; benzene and several others) Poly Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) Asbestos

7. World Trade Centre Disaster: Data Sampling • Asbestos in Air Standard under AHERA, the Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act • Asbestos in Bulk Dust The 1% definition • Particulate Matter in Air Two methods for measuring particulate matter: The filter method , The continuous method • Drinking Water Sampled drinking water from 13 water mains, evaluated the samples against federal Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCLs), no contaminants were detected • Benzene/ VOCs in Air all measurements were "grab" samples, lasting a few minutes • Metals in Air analyzed 20 metals, about a third of these metals: not detected and thirteen metals: detected

8. World Trade Centre Disaster: Data Evaluation • very limited data available on the levels of exposure that occurred to individuals due to direct contact with the plume of smoke and dust generated by the WTC collapse on September 11 • earliest reported data are from asbestos monitoring, which began on September 14 • data available is space variable as well as time variable • the maximum concentration for all the contaminants available has been chosen in order to calculate risk • comparing a single concentration with the available screening values (which are for average concentrations and for continuous exposure) makes almost all the contaminants Chemical of Concerns (COC’s).

9. Toxicity Assessment Asbestos Nickel Choromium Vinyl chloride Human carcinogens dichloroethane 1,1- hexachloro- 1,3- butadiene benzene chloroform Probable human carcinogens benzyl-chloride bromoform butadiene 1,3 carbon tetrachloride dichloroethane 1,2- dioxane 1,4 Possible human carcinogens

10. Toxicityassessment Hematoxic: benzene styrene trichloroethane 1,1,1- antimony arsenic cadmium selenium zinc Pulmotoxic bromoethane benzene dichloropropene trans1,3- methylnaphtalene, naphthalene toluene vinyl acetate chromium PM2.5 beryllium Hepatoxic: benzene bromoform chlorobenzene chloroform dichlorobenzene 1,4- MTBE styrene tetrachloroethane toluene vinyl chloride Neurotoxic: butadiene styrene toluene barium manganese mercury xylene Nephrotoxic: acetone MTBE toluene barium Dermatoxic chromium arsenic sylver

11. Exposure assessment • To evaluate the exposure pathways it is necessary to define: • a)      Source of contamination • b)      Media contaminated • c)      Type of contaminant • d)      Route of human exposure.

12. Exposure assessment • Source of contamination Off-site On-site

13. Exposure assessment • Media contaminated • air • Type of contaminants • Asbestos, benzene,dioxin, metals, PM, PCBs, VOCs • Route of human exposure • inhalation

14. Exposure assessment • Exposure scenarios

15. Exposure assessment • Parameter values

16. WTC Building Exposures • Four Buildings • North • South • Austin • Building 5 • Carcinogen vs. Non-carcinogen • Adults Only • Occupational Exposures

17. Carcinogens Non-carcinogens WTC North

18. Carcinogens Non-carcinogens WTC South

19. Carcinogens Non-carcinogens WTC Austin

20. Carcinogens Non-carcinogens WTC Building 5

21. Average Exposures • Larger sampling area • Children and Adults • Different exposures • Industrial • Recreational • Residential

22. Carcinogens Non-carcinogens Adult Industrial Exposure

23. Carcinogens Non-carcinogens Adult Recreational Exposure

24. Carcinogens Non-carcinogens Child Recreational Exposure

25. Carcinogens Non-carcinogens Adult Residential Exposure

26. Carcinogens Non-carcinogens Child Residential Exposure

27. Carcinogens Benzene chloroform dichloroethane vinyl chloride Dioxane Bromoform carbon tetrachloride hexachlorobutadiene Non-carcinogens Butadiene vinyl acetate bromoethane chromium chlorobenzene benzene MTBE Summary