Occupational Exposures to Air Contaminants at the World Trade Center Disaster Site – New York, September – October, 2001

Details

• Journal Article:
  Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report
• Personal Author:
  McKinney, K. ; Benson, S. ; Lempert, A. ; Singal, Mitchell ; Wallingford, Kenneth M. ; Snyder, Erin M.
• Description:
  Amid concerns about the fires and suspected presence of toxic materials in the rubble pile following the collapse of the World Trade Center (WTC) buildings on September 11, 2001, the New York City Department of Health (NYCDOH) asked CDC for assistance in evaluating occupational exposures at the site. CDC's National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) collected general area (GA) and personal breathing zone (PBZ) air samples for numerous potential air contaminants. This report summarizes the results of the assessment, which indicate that most exposures, including asbestos, did not exceed NIOSH recommended exposure limits (RELs) or Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) permissible exposure limits (PELs) (1,2). One torch cutter was overexposed to cadmium; another worker was overexposed to carbon monoxide (CO) while cutting metal beams with an oxyacetylene torch or a gasoline-powered saw, and two more were possibly overexposed to CO. NIOSH recommended that workers ensure adequate on-site ventilation when using gas-powered equipment and use rechargeable, battery-powered equipment when possible. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Air Pollutants, Occupational Air Pollution, Indoor Asbestos Dust Environmental Exposure Environmental Monitoring Environmental Pollution Hazardous Substances Inorganic Chemicals Irritants Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Safety September 11 Terrorist Attacks

  More +
• Keywords:
  Air-contamination; Air-sampling; Occupational-exposure; Occupational-hazards; Toxic-materials; Environmental-exposure; Environmental-hazards; Exposure-levels; Exposure-limits; Breathing-zone; Region-2; Respiratory-irritants; Asbestos-dust; Asbestos-fibers; Hazardous-materials; Dust-exposure; Gas-sampling; Gases
• Source:
  MMWR 2002 May; 51(21):453-456
• Series:
  Weekly Report: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR)
• ISSN:
  0149-2195
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  New York ; Ohio ; OSHA Region 2 ; OSHA Region 5
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DSHEFS - Division of Surveillance, Hazard Evaluations, and Field Studies
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  4 pdf pages
• Contributor:
  Bernard, Bruce P. ; Booher, D. ; Burr, G. ; Esswein, Eric ; Hall, R. ; Harney, J. ; Hewett, D. ; King, Bradley S. ; Lenhart, Steven W. ; Lushniak, B. ; McCleery, R. ; Martinez, K. ; Mattorano, D. ; Weber, A. ; Linch, K. ; Middendorf, P. J. ; Earnest, S. ; Echt, A. ; Fernback, J. ; Grote, Ardith A. ; Neumeister, C. ; Kennedy, E. ; Zimmer, T.
• Volume:
  51
• Issue:
  21
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20022602
• Citation:
  MMWR 2002 May; 51(21):453-456
• CAS Registry Number:
  Cadmium (CAS RN 7440-43-9) ; Carbon monoxide (CAS RN 630-08-0) ; Chlorodifluoromethane (CAS RN 75-45-6) ; Hydrogen sulfide (CAS RN 7783-06-4) ; Mercury (CAS RN 7439-97-6) ; Quartz (SiO2) (CAS RN 14808-60-7)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2002
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Collection(s):
  Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:d6ab39554afd2c9c610e65bb3ac622039a93f7da71a1c8c02d89a6a8bd43f0c99d0a493f80b341a6ec81a725a1f02796ed7b68c566a2e474b9ba354f90b42305
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/183221/cdc_183221_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 506.29 KB ]