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Daily Environmental Monitoring Summary

Thursday, January 31, 2002

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other federal, state and local agencies have collected extensive environmental monitoring data from the World Trade Center site and nearby areas in Manhattan, Brooklyn and New Jersey. Since September 11, EPA has taken samples of the air, dust, water, river sediments and drinking water and analyzed them for the presence of pollutants that might pose a health risk to response workers at the World Trade Center site and the public. The samples are evaluated against a variety of benchmarks, standards and guidelines established to protect public health under various conditions. EPA is collecting data from more than 20 fixed air monitors in and around ground zero and additional monitors in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island. The Agency is also using portable sampling equipment to collect data from a range of locations.

Results as of 4:45 p.m. on 1/31

Air: Fixed Monitors in New York:
Asbestos - EPA analyzed 84 samples taken in and around ground zero from January 27 through January 29. EPA also sampled for asbestos at two additional lower Manhattan locations from January 25 through January 27. All samples showed results less than 70 structures per square millimeter, which is the Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act (AHERA) standard for allowing children to re-enter school buildings after asbestos removal activities. This brings the total number of air samples collected and analyzed for lower Manhattan to 5,514, with 31 samples above the standard (27 of these were collected prior to September 30, the other four were collected on October 9, November 27, December 27 and January 14).

Air: Fixed Monitors outside Lower Manhattan:
Asbestos - Samples were collected from additional asbestos monitors at Intermediate School 143 (511 W. 182nd St., Manhattan), Public School 154 (333 East 135th St, Bronx) and P.S. 199 (3290 48th St., Queens) from January 25 through January 27. Samples were also collected at P.S. 274 (800 Bushwick Ave, Brooklyn), P.S. 44 (80 Maple Parkway, Staten Island) on January 25 and January 27. None showed exceedances of the AHERA re-entry standard.

Staten Island Landfill:
Air (Asbestos) - Nineteen air samples collected on January 28 were analyzed for asbestos. All samples were below the school re-entry standard.

Ambient Air Samples:
VOCs - Sampling for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) was conducted on January 30 in the direct area of the debris pile at ground zero. To protect workers at the work site, EPA takes grab samples of VOCs where smoke plumes have been sighted. The results are snapshots of the levels at a moment in time. OSHA's protective standards set a permissible exposure limit (PEL) averaged over an 8-hour day.

All samples taken on January 30 at EPA's Wash Tent (West & Murray Streets), Austin Tobin Plaza, the South Tower debris pile, and the North Tower debris pile either showed no detectable levels of VOC's, or the levels of VOC's did not exceed OSHA standards.

Latest Available Daily Environmental Monitoring Summary

EPA information about the events of September 11

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