Weekend Edition: What Did You Breathe In on 9/11?

credit: Scientific American

The contents of the smoke and debris plume from what was the World Trade Center was something government officials did not want you to know because of course they were anxious to open for business as usual especially on Wall Street. Ten million tons of building materials and contents burned at over 1,000 ℃ fueled by 91,000 liters of jet fuel. The North Tower was full of asbestos, used as a flame retardant on wall board. Yet on September 13th before the dust had settled then EPA administrator Christie Whitman claimed there was "no significant levels of asbestos dust in the air" and five days later she claimed the air was safe to breath. We know differently now with the many cases of "Trade Center cough" affecting an estimate one out of two workers in the aftermath. Scientific American reports that analysis of the smoke and dust samples taken a few days afterwards detected many substances harmful to human health.

Asbestos levels were 25% above the 1% threshold considered a significant risk to human health. The buildings' miles of electrical cables contained lead and electrical transformers contained PCBs. Glass covering the towers' shells was pulverized into microscopic fibers that lodged in the lungs of rescue and clean up workers. The highest levels of dioxin ever recorded anywhere were measured in the air above the smoldering pile of debris. Respiratory problems experienced by survivors and rescuers is caused by the fact that the dust was highly alkaline due to gypsum and calcite found in both drywall and cement. The pH level around the site was at 11 before a rain on September 14th reduced it to a pH of 9. Effects of alkalinity was compounded by the irritation of mucus membranes by microscopic particles. Respirators were not used or incorrectly used by rescuers, despite the EPA supplying 22,000 respirators. At the same time it was urging workers to use safety equipment for breathing, it announced to the public that the air in the vicinity of the disaster were "unlikely to suffer...adverse health effects caused by inhalation". The pile of rubble smoldered until December 19th acting in the words of atmospheric scientist like a "chemical factory...cook[ing] together the components of the buildings and their contents including enormous numbers of computers, and gave off gases of toxic metals, acids and organics." An accountant who worked next door to the site of the Towers died in December 2010. An autopsy showed he died of inflammatory lung disease. In June he was ruled to be the 2,753rd official victim of the terror attacks of 9/11.